


By Moonlight Cold and Clear

by YumeArashi



Series: Haven werewolf 'verse [1]
Category: Haven - Fandom
Genre: Abuse of Police Power, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Duke gets all the hugs, Duke needs all the hugs, Emotional Manipulation, Emotional Trauma, Excess Drinking, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, I know nothing about criminal investigation, Mourning, Multi, Murder Mystery, No Troubles, Past Child Abuse, Pre-OT3, Self-Sacrifice, Werewolves, don't worry my beta reader knows this stuff, minor character death (canon compliant), my first mystery, references to domestic abuse, references to sexual abuse of children, references to suicidal thoughts, tons of it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-23
Updated: 2016-03-23
Packaged: 2018-05-28 13:51:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 37,672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6331696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YumeArashi/pseuds/YumeArashi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Even in a Haven without Troubles, the body count is rising.  FBI Agent Audrey Parker comes to town to put a stop to it, and gets more than she bargained for.</p><p>Supernatural murder mystery, trouble-free AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	By Moonlight Cold and Clear

Audrey Parker looked around as she drove through Haven.  Even in winter, the charming New England coastal town seemed about the least likely possible place to be harboring a serial killer, but the FBI agent knew that you never could judge such things by appearance.  She followed her phone’s GPS to the police station and pulled up in front of the red brick building, heading inside and asking for the police chief.

She was directed to an office that had the name plate ‘Chief Nathan Wuornos’, and she wondered how the surname was pronounced.  She knocked and was instructed to enter.  The police chief was surprisingly young, only a few years older than her at most, and ruggedly handsome in a way that made Audrey hope he wouldn’t end up a suspect.  Beneath the official jacket he was dressed casually in the way that seemed typical of the area, and he certainly was as taciturn as any weatherbeaten old seadog.

“Thanks for coming.  Nasty case.  Read the file?”

“Of course.  Five dead, initially ruled to be animal attacks, started drawing attention when the numbers kept rising and no trace of rabies was found in the wounds.”

Nathan nodded.  “Local hunt club’s scoured the woods outside town repeatedly.  Idiots shot two of each other so far, but no animals that could do this.”

Audrey flipped through the case notes.  “The medical examiner initially thought it was a wolf, but wolves don’t usually attack people, right?”

“Avoid them at all costs, more like,” Nathan agreed.  “Unless they’re rabid.”

“Which isn’t the case.”

“Would’ve showed in saliva in the bite wounds.  Nothing so far.  Plus,” he spread out photos of the crime scenes.  “Wolves are smarter than you’d think, understand some predatory strategy, but this…this’d be a damn smart wolf.”

“So maybe not a wolf at all, but a human making it look like animal attacks.”

“Possible.  Hasn’t done anything so far a wolf definitely couldn’t, but it’s suspicious.”

“What about the victims, any connection there?”

Nathan shook his head.  “Entirely random, far’s we can tell.  No common family, workplace, friends, hangouts, habits, or geography.”

Audrey grimaced.  Random victim selection always complicated things.  “I don’t suppose there’s any kind of surveillance footage that’s proved useful?”

Nathan snorted.  “Don’t exactly have a lot of security cameras around here.  Never needed ‘em.”

“Have people started using them, after what’s been going on?”

Nathan shook his head.  “Been buying guns, not cameras.”

Audrey frowned, and looked through the file again.  Two victims or maybe three, she’d think there was a connection they just hadn’t found yet.  But with five…still possible, but unlikely.  And if the victims truly were randomly selected, it was likely that the motive was simply that the murderer liked killing.

“All right, if we’re not getting anywhere with connecting the victims or finding a motive, let’s look at the deaths themselves.  Is it possible that they’re being killed in a conventional manner and afterward disguised to look like animal attacks?”

Nathan shook his head.  “Couple different experts have taken a look at the bodies by now, they all agree the obvious wounds were the cause of death.  All had massive blood loss, one’s throat was crushed and the neck broken, another’s skull fractured.”

“The damage was extensive,” Audrey frowned at the medical examiners’ photos.  “That seems…vicious, for an animal.”

“Predators kill efficiently,” Nathan agreed.  “Even a rabid one won’t savage a victim that’s already dead.  And there was no evidence that anything fed on the bodies.”

“I’m not an animal expert, but this doesn’t sound like a wolf.”

“That’s the problem.  The experts agree – but they also insist that the damage really was done by a wolf.  Not a human who’s using a wolf skull to mimic the wounds, or anything like that.”

“Damn, there goes that theory.  So, are we looking at a trained wolf, maybe?”

“Can’t train a wolf to do that.  They aren’t easy to train at all, and killing humans goes against their deepest instincts.”

“Are we overlooking the obvious, could it be a trained attack dog?”

“Animal experts say no.  Don’t know that we can rule it out, though.”

“Because we just don’t have any other explanation,” Audrey concluded.  “Okay, then let’s consider the killer’s identity.  Haven’s a small town and in my experience small towns notice when something’s out of the ordinary.  Has anyone noticed anything unusual?”

Nathan looked disgusted.  “Everyone’s noticed everything unusual.  People are paranoid and attention-seeking, reports have been flooding in.  Every little quirk and deviation from daily routine is suddenly cause for suspicion.  The answer might be in there, but it’s a needle in a haystack.  I have uniforms sorting through the reports but it’ll take time, and we have to find this killer soon.”

“Before more bodies turn up,” Audrey agreed.

**

After a few hours of tossing around ideas in vain, Nathan sat back in his chair with a disgruntled expression.  “Let’s head down to the docks.  There’s a guy there I know, if there’s something sketchy going on in Haven he’s probably involved.”

“Pretty thin lead.”

“Got any better ideas, I’m all ears,” Nathan grunted.

Audrey didn’t, so they headed out to Nathan’s truck.  “So tell me about this sketchy guy,” she asked.

“Duke Crocker.  Small-time crook and smuggler, unreliable, untrustworthy, and all around pain in my ass.  Brought him in on a dozen or so minor incidents, but he’s smart enough to have ducked any serious charges - so far.  One day I’ll find proof to really nail him to the wall, and he knows it.  Has a legitimate business, the Grey Gull restaurant, but obviously that’s just a cover.  Also has a reputation for leading a charmed life - supposedly there’ve been several attempts on his life that he’s managed to mysteriously get out of.  Probably rumors he himself started.”

“Sounds like you two have a real Dudley Do-Right/Snidely Whiplash thing going on.”

“Rocky and Bullwinkle fan?” he asked, smiling for the first time.

It was a very nice smile, Audrey thought.  “Grew up on it.”

“Good stuff.  But you’re not wrong, there’s a lot of bad blood there,” Nathan’s smile faded, and Audrey had to wonder if there was something more than just a small-town petty crook and police antagonism there.

“If that’s the case, why not let me go in alone?  He’s not going to cooperate with you, I’m guessing.”

“He won’t cooperate with you, either.  He’ll know you’re law enforcement the minute he sets eyes on you.”

Audrey looked down at her professional pantsuit, which stuck out like a sore thumb among the practical, comfortable clothing the Mainers seemed to prefer.  “Probably.  But better small chance than no chance.”

Nathan shrugged, pulling up at the marina.  “That’s his ship, the Cape Rouge.  Good luck.”

Audrey walked down the length of the dock, looking at the ship.  The large cargo ship seemed rusty, not in good repair, but if he was a smuggler it must be seaworthy.  A deliberate air of disrepair to divert suspicion, maybe?  There was a ramp down to the dock and she headed up it, hesitating at the ship’s railing.  The desk seemed cluttered with all sorts of miscellany, but that was background detail she absently noted as she focused on the ship’s occupant.  Hiding behind a newspaper (Chinese language, she noted – smart, indeed), the tall lean figure was clothed in an odd collection of what looked like cast-off clothes – cargo shorts in spite of the cold, battered Converse, layered shirts with a sweater that would’ve looked at home on anyone’s grandpa.

“Permission to come aboard,” he said without a flick of the paper.

Highly aware of his surroundings, too – not surprising in a criminal, but a good thing to know about him.

“Permission to have a conversation face to face?” she asked tartly as she made her way across the cluttered deck.

The newspaper lowered, revealing a face that shouldn’t have been attractive but was, a trim goatee framing the grin that curved the soft mouth and dark eyes that crinkled with humor but looked her over with cool assessment.  “Always have time to chat with a lovely lady, even FBI.  Enjoying Maine?”

“You don’t miss much, do you?”

“A point of personal pride not to.”

“So you know why I’m here.”

“Of course.  That wolf’s gotten too many people, and someone’s wondering if it’s not a wolf.  Alternative is serial killer, hence FBI.  And why you’re here on my boat specifically, well, I’m the first person the chief looks at for everything bad in Haven.  Can I offer you coffee?”

The charming smile was firmly in place, but Audrey didn’t miss the bitterness in his voice as he spoke of Nathan’s distrust.  It wasn’t the bitterness of a guilty man, and Audrey wondered again what was really between them.  “Thanks, that sounds great.  Whatever the chief may think, I don’t consider you a suspect.  I’m just here to talk.”

“You can’t have ruled me out, it’s too early for that,” Duke poured the coffee and put the mug on a little tray with a sugar bowl and pot of cream, handing it over.  “And whether I’m a suspect or not, you should know that I don’t talk to cops.  Even the good looking ones.”

Audrey took the mug, leaving the cream and sugar.  “Even about something as unrelated to law enforcement as a rabid wolf attacking people?”

There, right there.  A flicker in the dark eyes.  The smuggler knew something.

“Not much to talk about there.  There’s a wolf.  It’s rabid.  It’s killing people.”

“Some people aren’t so sure.”

Duke shrugged.  “Some people are idiots.  Now, if you would like to discuss the weather or the fishing conditions or the best places to visit during your stay, I’m happy to oblige you.  Otherwise I really don’t think there’s anything else to say.”

“Fair enough.  Thank you for the coffee, it was very good,” she told him, handing him the empty mug.

Duke seemed genuinely pleased at the praise, grinning as he took the mug.  “Secret’s a little pinch of cinnamon in with the ground beans.  Glad you liked it.  Come back for more anytime – I have nothing to hide.”

“Never imagined you did,” Audrey told him honestly – Duke knew better, she was sure of that.

**

“Well, he’s certainly no serial killer,” Audrey said as she got back into Nathan’s truck.

“Never figured he was.  Thought he might know something useful.  Betting he didn’t talk though.”

“Not about anything useful.  He was charming and flirtatious and strictly trivial.  Says he thinks the wolf attacks are just that.”

Nathan snorted, entirely unsurprised.

“Tell me about him.  Not just the rap sheet, tell me about the man.  Has he lived here his whole life?  Was he ever on the straight and narrow?  Does he actually hurt people or just duck Customs?”

Nathan looked unhappy at the request.  “Known him since we were five.  Parents were petty crooks and he grew into the lifestyle.  Kind of kid everyone knows is gonna grow up to be a no-account.  Never actually known him to hurt anyone,” he admitted begrudgingly.  “Thinks rules don’t apply to him.  Figures he can talk his way out of anything, is right more often than I’d like.  Popular with the ladies, that whole bad-boy thing.  Acts charming and friendly to everyone but doesn’t trust anyone, never lets people see past the surface.  Doesn’t have anyone in his life that I know of, no steady relationships, no real friends.  Father was lost at sea when Duke was eight, mother was never around much and at some point just didn’t come back.  Had some siblings, but all of them took off when they got old enough.  Duke too, but he came back a few years ago – god knows why.”

Audrey nodded, a picture of the charming rogue starting to come together in her mind.  She wondered if the adults in the town had helped Duke as child instead of writing him off as trouble, whether things would have turned out differently for him.  “What about things between the two of you?  If you don’t mind me saying so, there seems to be more than just cop and crook rivalry.”

Nathan looked even unhappier that she’d picked up on that.  “We were best friends as kids.  Had big dreams.  I wanted to get him out of that life, wanted to see him make something of himself.  He didn’t.  He became a crook and I became a cop.  End of story.”

“Good to know,” Audrey said neutrally.  Personally she didn’t believe it had to be the end of their story, but she wasn’t here for that, she reminded herself.  She was here to catch a killer, everything else mattered only as it related to that.

**

“Huh.  I wonder…” Audrey swiveled the chair around to the computer, tapping in a search term.

“Got something?” Nathan asked eagerly.  It had been a long and fruitless few weeks.

“Maybe…”  Audrey flipped through the file, glancing between the pages and the computer screen.

Nathan waited patiently, watching her frown grow.

“All these deaths took place on the night of a full moon.  There hasn’t been a death every full moon, but every death happened on one.”

“So we’re looking for a werewolf,” Nathan said with deadpan sarcasm.

“Ha very ha,” Audrey rolled her eyes.  “You’re a funny guy, Nathan.”

“I try.  So what, someone who thinks they are a werewolf?  Some sort of full moon ritualistic killing?”

“Probably not ritualistic, we’ve seen no other indications of anything ceremonial.  So I’d guess a mental illness causing the delusion that the killer is a werewolf.”

“How the hell do you hide that in a town the size of Haven?” Nathan wondered.

“Good question.  But a lot of werewolf myths consider the werewolf to be completely human the rest of the month, so maybe this person thinks they’re normal and acts that way – except for their full-moon rampages.”

“Maybe.  Still, it’s a lead,” Nathan seemed energized.

Audrey was, too.  “Next full moon is this Thursday.  If you set up patrols for your officers, I’ll start contacting employers in town to see if anyone’s regularly absent from work before or after full moon nights.  We should put out a notice for people to stay indoors that night, we can say we got reports that the rabid wolf was spotted.”

“We have a plan,” Nathan grinned, going to get a map of the town to work out the patrols.

**

“That your warmest jacket?” Nathan asked as he and Audrey headed out to Nathan’s truck for the full moon patrol.  “Gonna be a cold night.”

“Winters in DC aren’t like they are up here,” Audrey shrugged.  “I’ll be okay while we’re in the car.  If we have to get out…well, I’ll live.”

“If we need to investigate on foot you can have my jacket.  Got some blankets in the back, if bad goes to worse.”

“Aren’t you the gentleman,” she grinned, enjoying the embarrassed blush that crept over his cheeks.

“Used to the cold, living up here.  No big deal,” Nathan mumbled.

“Well, in return for warmth I brought sandwiches and coffee.  In my experience an all-night stakeout means 3 am snack cravings.”

“Can’t imagine wanting food at that hour.  But then I’ve never had to.  Not exactly much call for stakeouts around here.”

“Welcome to the big leagues,” Audrey grinned as she hopped up into the passenger side of the Bronco.

The other Haven PD officers had been assigned their own neighborhoods to patrol or had set points from which to keep watch, so Audrey and Nathan had decided to drive a slow, continual circuit around the main roads of the town.  The changing scenery would keep them fresh, keep their eyes focused for anything unusual rather than being numbed to the same scenes, tempted to let their eyes drift away.  They kept their voices low as they talked, not wanting to miss any suspicious noises.

“So what’s it like, being a small-town police officer?  That is, when werewolves aren’t running amuck?” Audrey smiled.

“Good life.  Quiet.  Helping people.  How’s the FBI?”

“Intense.  Most of us live for the job, pretty much.  But it’s worth it, to be out there really making a difference.”

“Ever wish it was different?”

Audrey considered that.  “I don’t know.  I can see the appeal of having a quieter life, but I can’t really see myself ever slowing down.  I don’t just live for the job because it’s demanding, I enjoy what I do.  I’d be bored to tears if I had your job.  What about you, you ever wish you had more excitement?”

“Had more of that than I’d like these last six months,” Nathan said sourly.

“Fair enough,” Audrey conceded.  “What made you get into police work?”

“Family.  Dad was chief before me.”  Nathan’s voice made it clear he didn’t want to talk about it, and Audrey could guess why.  Nathan was young enough that it was unlikely his father would have already retired, so it was likely that he’d succeeded to the position under grimmer circumstances.  Audrey remembered the display of photos back at the station memorializing officers lost in the line of duty.  The photos were few and far between but there was one that was no more than ten years old, a middle aged man wearing a jacket much like Nathan’s.

“What about you?” Nathan asked, bringing Audrey out of her thoughts – and into much darker ones.

“Something happened when I was a kid that made me want to take a stand against the bad guys and fight to keep people safe.”

“Good reason,”  Nathan nodded, knowing not to press the issue.

Audrey appreciated it, and turned the conversation to lighter topics.

By the time 3 am rolled around and proved Audrey right about the need for a snack break, they’d talked about books and movies and music, discussed favorite hobbies and sports teams, laughed over police academy misadventures and unbelievable criminal idiocy.  Nathan couldn’t remember when he’d last talked this much, and he’d definitely spent more time smiling that night than probably the last six months put together.  While he wished it hadn’t taken a tragedy to bring Audrey to Haven, he was glad she was here now.  Maybe once the case was solved they could go out somewhere nice, get dinner…maybe more.  Maybe by then she’d have fallen in love with Haven, might be inclined to transfer to a field office close enough to visit regularly.

Audrey unpacked the sandwiches and pulled out fresh thermoses of coffee.  She was sure that the attraction she was feeling was mutual.  She was definitely asking him out once this was over…and maybe she’d use a little of that leave she had piled up, spend some time here and enjoy the town properly, without worrying about murderers running loose.  Or enjoy one of the town’s residents, at least.  She wondered if Nathan would ever consider leaving Haven – his taciturn manner hid a sharp investigative mind, he’d do well at the FBI.  Or if he just loved small town life, there were small towns elsewhere.  Maybe closer to DC.

She turned back around in the seat and handed Nathan a couple of sandwiches and a thermos, settling back down to enjoy her own meal.

“Sandwiches are really good,” Nathan said after a minute.  “Where are they from?”

“The Grey Gull.”

Nathan paused with his sandwich halfway to his mouth.  Audrey rolled her eyes.  “Oh, don’t look like that.  You liked it before you knew where it came from.  I’ve eaten there a few times now and it’s always been good.  If Duke’s using it as a cover, he’s doing a remarkably believable job.”

“You’re supporting his criminal lifestyle, you know that right?” Nathan said grumpily – although he did take another bite of the sandwich.

“Actually, it’s just the opposite.  By helping his legitimate business do well, I’m providing him with an alternative to his criminal lifestyle.  How is boycotting his legal source of income going to do anything but force him to rely on less legitimate means of supporting himself?”

Nathan was silent for a long moment.  It was clear he’d never thought of it that way.  “You really think he’d give up smuggling to settle down and run a restaurant?” he asked dubiously.

Audrey shrugged.  “Maybe, maybe not.  But one thing I’ve learned from my time in law enforcement is, an awful lot of people turn to crime simply for lack of any other opportunity.  You said Duke was already considered a delinquent when he was just a kid, seen as a budding criminal simply because his parents were.  Was there anyone in Haven who would have given him a chance to make something of himself?  Would anyone have offered him a job or rented him an apartment?”

Nathan looked uncomfortable, and distinctly guilty.  “He was a smart kid.  He could have gotten scholarships.”

“Without any help from his parents or teachers?  Or anyone else?  And even if he got a full ride somewhere, how we he supposed to live while he was off at college?  Would anyone have given him a job once he graduated, or would the town still see him as nothing but trouble?” Audrey challenged.  “Everyone had already made up their minds that he was going to be a crook, how was he ever supposed to be anything else?”

Nathan’s frown deepened.  “He could have tried.”

“Maybe he was trying.   I know you two were friends but it’s hard to know what a person’s home life is really like.  Especially since I’d bet good money that Duke’s too proud to ever let anyone see him struggling.”

“Might have a point there,” Nathan conceded reluctantly.

“Maybe you’re right.  Maybe if anyone had given him a chance as a kid he’d have let them down.  Maybe he’s a smuggler now because he likes it, because it’s easy money or adventure or whatever.  But it’s just as likely that he’s tired of running from the law and from deals gone bad, and he’d really like to stop lying and hiding all the time and have a chance at peace for a change.  Maybe he wants to do something with his life he can be proud of, maybe he wants people in his life who won’t stab him in the back first chance they get.  If he never has the choice, we’ll never know.”

Nathan was silent for a long while, remembering the dreams the two of them had had as kids, their plans for a bright and beautiful future.  Owning a restaurant was never exactly on the list, but then again neither was crime.

“Guess it won’t hurt to have lunch there sometimes,” he allowed grudgingly.

Audrey took it for the victory it was.

**

When dawn broke, there were not one, but three fresh bodies.

“The killer is taunting us,” Nathan growled, pacing his office.  Anger was the only thing keeping him going – it was midmorning now, long past the point where caffeine was any help.  “The entire town was crawling with our officers and no one saw or heard a goddamned thing but _three_ more people died!  This is not a damn animal, no wolf could have pulled this off.”

“I agree,” Audrey said wearily.  “But the most productive course of action now is for you and I to get some rest.  We’re not going to come up with answers after being awake for 36 hours straight.”

“No, I can’t rest, not when there are still things we could be doing,” Nathan shook his head.

“Nathan, we’ve got uniforms combing the scenes for every speck of evidence and talking to anyone who might have seen something, Gloria’s still working on the autopsies, forensics experts are on their way from Boston.  All this will take time – time we can use to rest and come back to this with sharp eyes and clear minds, time that will give us a much more complete picture.”

Nathan wavered, guilt warring with exhaustion.  “This is my town.  These are my people, Audrey.  Eight lives I couldn’t save.  It’s my job to protect them and I…” his voice choked off.

Audrey stepped up beside him, squeezing his shoulder.    She didn’t tell him that there was no way he could have prevented this, or that he’d done the best he could.  She knew how meaningless those words would be.  “The best thing you can do for them now is find their killer.  And to do that you need to get some sleep and come back to this when you’re fresh.”

Nathan closed his eyes, swaying on his feet.  “I can nap on the sofa in here, that way if anyone finds anything they can wake me.”

“That sofa’s too small for me to comfortably sleep, let alone a beanpole like you.  You’re going home and sleeping properly in your own bed.  If anyone finds anything they can call your cell. Come on, it’s bedtime for both of us.  Who knows, maybe by the time we wake up something will have turned up that’ll break this wide open.”

“Really doubting that,” Nathan mumbled – but he allowed her to shepherd him towards the door.

Inwardly, Audrey agreed.  It couldn’t be that easy.

**

Sure enough, a few days later when the reports were in and the experts had made up their minds, there were more questions than answers.

“You’re sure?” Audrey asked the zoological expert.  “I’m not doubting your capabilities, Ms. Minion, but that’s…a surprising result.”

“No one is more surprised than I,” Jess replied in her Québécois-touched English.  “From the visual exam, I was certain this was a wolf.  The texture and color of the fur, the shape of the broken-off tooth, indisputably lupine.  But the DNA analysis says no.”

“Canine, then, from a dog,” Nathan surmised, but she shook her head.

“My second guess, also fruitless.  No species match was found.”

“Okay, so…some rarer species of canid that we don’t have a profile to match?” Audrey frowned.  “God only knows what kind of skull or pelt this psycho got his hands on.  You can find anything on the internet if you look hard enough.”

“There you are not wrong, but these did not come from any trophy,” Jess pulled up more pictures on her laptop.  “The pulp in the core of the broken tooth is still fresh, still living tissue.  The roots of the fur still pliable and full, not dried and brittle.  There can be no doubt, these came from a living animal.”

Nathan rubbed a hand over his face.  “A living canid of unknown species smart enough to find probably the only three people in town who disregarded the warning to stay indoors, then stalk them until they were out of eyesight and earshot of the police officers who were all over the place, and killed them in a shockingly violent manner, all while managing to avoid one single sighting.”

“It’s about enough to make me start considering the werewolf theory,” Audrey grimaced.  “It’s got to be a trained animal.  Only a human mind could direct these attacks.  So if these kills could only be from a living animal, then someone in town got a hold of…I don’t know, know one of those wolf-coyote hybrids or something, and somehow trained it kill on command.  It’s ludicrous but it’s the only explanation that makes sense.  ‘When you’ve ruled out the impossible’, and all that.”

“Not sure werewolves sound more impossible,” Nathan grunted.  “Who’d go that far to kill a bunch of completely random strangers?”

“Someone insane enough to run around on the full moon doing it because they think werewolves are a real thing, apparently,” Audrey shrugged.  “Have the unis finished going through the hidden camera footage?”

“No luck.  Small-town Maine at night, not much to see, not easy to tell what you’re seeing.  The only areas where there was enough light for clear footage were downtown, and the killer stayed well away from there.”

“It was always going to be a long shot.” Audrey sighed.  “It was worth a try.  If we hadn’t gotten the warrant we might have missed something.  And there’s nothing new from the autopsies and still no witnesses?”

Nathan nodded.  “Nothing remarkably different in these deaths than the others, and we still haven’t found anyone who saw or heard anything.”

“Victim selection?  Any significance there?”

“All people who’d have disregarded the warning to stay inside.  T.R. Holt, one of the most fervent members of the Hunt Club, found with his rifle undischarged nearby, no doubt thinking he could get the wolf before it got him.  Leith Glendower, found near the edge of his family’s compound – we sent someone out there to post a notice about staying indoors, but they don’t have much truck with the outside world and possibly didn’t know.  And Marge Douglas, who’s the kind of person who’d argue the sky was orange just because someone else claimed it was blue, out walking her dog.  Dog made it home, she didn’t.”

Audrey flipped though the autopsy report.  “That’s a well-trained animal to ignore fleeing prey and go after a human who was fighting back, judging by the defensive wounds.”

“Not impossible, though.  Where are we with people missing work before or after the full moon?”

“No one remembers any of their employees consistently missing work on those nights.  A lot of people don’t keep any kind of timecard punch or other system to verify attendance, so it’s possible people just aren’t remembering.  Plus there’s the possibility that the killer hasn’t held down the same job more than a couple months in a row, or has a job with an irregular schedule that would minimize the odds of anyone noticing they were gone those nights, or is self-employed like the fishermen, or doesn’t have any job at all.”

“Or we’re being lied to,” Nathan said grimly.

“Always possible.  But let’s save second guessing ourselves for when we’re out of options, all right?  We’ll figure this out.  I have every confidence we’re going to catch this guy.”

Nathan nodded, but he didn’t look anywhere near as confident.

**

Audrey forced herself to put down the file when she realized she’d read the same paragraph three times without it registering.  “We’re spinning our wheels.  Let’s get lunch.”

Nathan glanced at the clock.  “Lunch?  It’s 3 pm.”

“And we never stopped to eat, and I bet you’re as hungry as I am.  Come on, I’ll drive.”

“We had a snack break,” Nathan pointed out mildly, even as he stood and pulled his jacket on.

“Police station vending machine snacks are not an acceptable substitute for a meal.  In fact I’m not even sure they’re even an acceptable substitute for food.”

Nathan couldn’t argue that.  He could, however, argue her choice of restaurant when they pulled up outside the Grey Gull.

“Really, Parker?”

“It’s perfectly good food and I happen to like it a lot.  I’m going to go in and enjoy my lunch,  You are welcome to sit in the car and pout if you’d rather.”

Nathan gave her a grumpy look, but got out of the car.  “Are you trying to charm information out of Duke or something?”

“If I was, I wouldn’t have brought you along,” she smirked.  “I come here simply because the food is good, and Duke’s actually a really interesting guy, and perfectly friendly as long as I don’t bring up the case.”  If she had ulterior motives, she wasn’t going to mention them to Nathan yet, not until she had something solid to go on.  The chief was too suspicious of the smuggler as it was.

“Been making friends with him?” Nathan asked, in a tone that proved her right.

“Got a reason why I shouldn’t?” she challenged.  “Changed your mind about him not being a killer?”

Nathan looked disgruntled.  “I had Stan posted at the Rouge on the full moon.  He saw Duke come home before dark and he was there all night.  Unless the ship has an underwater escape hatch, he has a solid alibi.  And his employees vouched for him on the two full moons before that.”

“I’m going to overlook you having an officer shadow one guy you don’t even think did it, since it proved him innocent,” Audrey told him as he pulled open the door, calling across the mostly empty restaurant,  “Hi, Duke.”

Duke looked up with a smile that promptly dropped away when he saw Nathan behind her.  He filled a couple mugs of coffee and brought them over.  “My special blend, on the house as usual,” he told Audrey, setting hers down.  “You pay,” he told Nathan, giving him the other mug and getting a glare in return.

“Now boys, play nice.  We’re just here for a late lunch, Duke, not to question you.  Nathan really liked the sandwiches I got for the stakeout so I thought it’d be a nice change of pace for him.”

Usually when Audrey (or anyone, really) praised his cooking, Duke was visibly pleased, but this time he just looked unconvinced.  “He actually agreed to a civil interaction with me?  I’m finding that hard to believe.”

“You want me to be a hardass, I can,” Nathan told him.  “Maybe you were lying about your employees’ whereabouts on the nights of the murders, maybe I should ask for some proof.”

Duke’s eyes went cold, the first real expression of anger Audrey had seen on him.  “You know what, Nate?  Ever since I’ve come back to town, you’ve hounded me every single day.  You pick me up on the most bullshit trumped-up charges you can scrape out of the rulebook, you send your cops to stalk and question me for made-up reasons, you bribe that judge for search warrants to check the Rouge and comb through the books of the Gull every other month.  And I’ve never said boo to you about it, because you’re the chief of police and I’m a lying crook and there’s not a damn thing I can do about you abusing your power.  So it’s not okay but I live with it because what the hell else can I do, but if you start coming after my employees the way you’ve been coming after me - the best, most honest and hardworking people I could ever want working for me, _my_ people - then you and I are gonna have a serious problem.”

Nathan stood.  “Is that a threat?”

“Stop that, both of you,” Audrey said sharply, stepping between them.  “Nathan, get your hand away from your damn handcuffs and sit down.  I’ve watched the way you treat Duke and I’ve seen the list of charges you’ve filed against him, and from what I’ve seen his objection is completely justified.  And I’m done looking the other way, the harassment stops right here, right now.”

Nathan sat, looked like he’d taken a punch to the gut.  Audrey turned to Duke, who looked equally stunned that she’d actually stood up for him.  “Duke, Nathan was being an asshole, but believe it or not we’re not just singling you out.  We’re in the process of asking all employers in the area for any available records of employee attendance for the nights people died, rather than just taking people at their word.  I can imagine that you're not particularly inclined to cooperate after the way Nathan just treated you, but if you could provide those records, I personally would be very appreciative.”

Duke looked between them.  “I suppose this once I can make an exception.  I keep detailed timesheets and timestamped tip logs for all my staff, so I can prove that if their tips don’t come up to minimum wage I’m paying them the difference.  You know, in compliance with the law.  Audrey, you – and only you – are welcome to come back to the office with me and we’ll go over them.  He can wait out here.”

“’He’ is going to go get lunch elsewhere,” Nathan said shortly.  “Parker, give me a ring when you’re done and I’ll come get you.”

“No need, I can give her a ride back to the station,” Duke told him.  “I know you hate to come within a mile of me unless you’ve got an arrest warrant with my name on it.”

“Duke, enough,” Audrey sighed.  “He’s not going to keep harassing you, so don’t keep fanning the flames.  You two can be civil with each other if you try, I’m sure.”

Neither of them looked convinced, but Nathan left without another word.

**

“Hey, Audrey.  Another late night?” Duke asked as she came into the Grey Gull just before closing.

“Hey, Duke.  Don’t worry, I know you’re closing and the kitchen’s shut down.  I’m just here to get drunk, that won’t take long.”

Duke’s eyebrows rose.  “Is that so?  Have you eaten at all today?  I know how focused you get but trust me, you do not want the hangover that comes with drinking after an all-day empty stomach.”  

Audrey gave him a tired grin.  “Sounds like you’re speaking from experience.  I’m good, we went to Joe’s.  Nathan wanted pancakes.”

Duke rolled his eyes, but didn’t comment.  “Let me guess, you’re a martini gal.  Not too dry, lemon twist?”

“You’re good.”

“I try.  So is this an angry martini, a sad martini, a happy martini?”

“It’s an ‘I’m not getting anywhere thinking about this damn case with a clear head, so I’m going to try getting smashed and see if that loosens anything up’ martini.”

Duke laughed as he slid the martini over to her.  “In that case I will make you a very special deal.  I will get drunk with you and as long as you don’t try to question me, you can talk out the case and bounce ideas off me and we’ll see if we can come up with anything.”

“Spoken like a true friend,” Audrey said warmly, and for a moment there was something raw in Duke’s eyes, some naked emotion she couldn’t quite name.  But his smile never wavered as he poured himself a whiskey.

“To true friends, then.”

**

Two hours later, the Gull was closed and empty, Audrey and Duke were amicably drunk, and the conversation had rambled all over, wandering tipsily off on tangents but always looping back to the case eventually.

“How’d you end up a cop, anyhow?  Don’t tell me it’s the family business like Nate,” Duke asked as he poured Audrey a glass of water – he’d insisted on it between drinks to keep the hangovers manageable.

Audrey took a drink, weighing the question as best she could.  “I never had parents,” she said slowly.  “Grew up in the system.  One foster home, one of the other girls told me that the man, the man who was supposed to be a father to us, was…he was…”

“I can guess,” Duke said quietly.

Audrey nodded.  “So one night I waited for him in her room.  Stabbed him with scissors.  He never touched her again.  And that, all that whole awful mess, was so wrong, I decided to do something about it.  To stop people like her from getting hurt, to stop people like him from doing it.  She was just a kid, you know?  That should never happen.  No kid should get hurt, especially not by their parent.  No hurt kids.”

Duke stared at her for a long moment before admitting, “I really want to kiss you right now.  That’s probably a terrible idea isn’t it?”

Her train of through completely diverted from the previous topic, Audrey considered that, her face scrunched in thought.  “Terrible idea, probably.  I kinda really want to too, though.  I really like you.  And you’re hot.”

Duke grinned broadly, the drunken praise delighting him.  “I could say the same for you.  And I don’t say that about cops, ever.  Tell you what, if you still wanna kiss when it’s not a terrible idea, I am all over that.”

“Can it be a not-terrible idea soon?” Audrey asked hopefully.

Duke chuckled.  “See how you feel about it when you’re hungover.”

“Yeah, okay,” Audrey sighed.  “Another martini?  I don’t wanna sober up yet.”

“Can do,” Duke said agreeably.  He watched her with surprisingly clear eyes as he poured the drink, a measuring look that she didn’t notice.  “You know I don’t talk to cops,” he said as he came back and handed it to her, “But someone who became a cop to keep kids from getting hurt, someone who stands up to other cops for guys like me…there might be something.”

Audrey sat up straight, her eyes bright with interest, and she fumbled around for her notepad.

“I hear a lot of rumors the cops never would,” Duke said, taking a shot of whiskey.  “And those rumors have it that a guy named Max Hansen is back in town, laying low.  And Max Hansen is a very bad man.  Got a life sentence for killing a whole family, and he did it creatively.”

“So, the kind of guy who might think it’s fun to kill people and make it look like a werewolf did it.”

“He’d think that was hilarious, watching you guys scratch your heads.”

“I’ll look into it, see if he’s still in custody or if he got out,” Audrey said, reenergized.

“Fair warning – Nate will _not_ be happy about this.”

“I won’t tell him you knew anything about the case, I’m not going to justify his persecution of you.”

Duke blinked, then looked pleased.  “Oh.  Well, thanks.  I appreciate that, seriously.  But I didn’t mean that.  Max Hansen is Nate’s biological father.”

Audrey’s jaw dropped.

Duke gave her a thin smile.  “Yeah, the old chief adopted Nate after Hansen was sent up the river, married Nate’s mom and everything.  Ironic, huh?  You’d think he could get off his high horse thinking I was a bad seed, the fucking hypocrite.  He didn’t even know until I told him.”

“You told him that his dad wasn’t his dad, and he was fathered by an insane murderer?”

“What was I supposed to do, not tell him?  Believe me, that was not a call I made lightly.  He was gonna hate me either way, whether for lying or for telling the truth, so I went with honesty.  Man’s got a right to know that sort of thing.  If you ask me, it’s the chief’s fault for never having the balls to tell him the truth.”

“How did you even know, when he didn’t himself?”

“I met Hansen in prison.  I was bitching about the old chief sending me up for pointless bullshit – harassing me’s been a family tradition, see – and Hansen said I didn’t know the half of how bad the chief was, that he’d stolen Hansen’s kid.  I didn’t believe it at first, thought it was just the usual kinda bullshit people toss around in jail, but you can see the family resemblance if you look.”

“So you told Nathan, and he blew up at you.”

“Well, not at first, at first he didn’t believe me.  But he asked the chief about it and they had a huge argument about it, like a world-class meltdown.  They were still mad at each other a few days later when the chief stopped to help a broken-down car by the side of the road and some tourist came zooming around the curve and plowed right into him.”

“So they never got a chance to make up?” Audrey asked quietly.

Duke nodded.  “Nate blames me for that.  And he’s never, ever gonna forgive me.”

“You did what you thought was right, I’d have made the same call probably.  What happened isn’t your fault.”  Audrey shook her head.

“I know. But everything else around here is my fault, so why not this?” he sighed tiredly.

Audrey moved over to sit on the bench beside him, and gave him a hug.  “Nathan’s being an idiot.  You’re a great guy and I wish he’d see that.  I wanna fix you two.”

Duke, who had gone very still at the embrace, shook his head.  “You are very, very drunk.  I’m officially cutting you off and you’re going to bed.”

“Boo, you’re no fun.”

“If you want fun we could call Nathan, drag his ass out of bed to come drive you home,” Duke suggested cheerfully.

Audrey laughed.  “Actually pretty tempting.  But I think I’ll pass.  The inn isn’t far, I’ll be okay walking.”

“As if I’d let you wander around Haven drunk at 2 am in January,” Duke snorted.  “There’s a couch in the office, you can sleep there.”

“What about you?”

Duke shrugged.  “Not really in the mood to walk back to the Rouge in the cold.  Floor behind the bar won’t kill me for one night.”

“Well…if you’re sure.”

“I’ll be fine.  G’night, Audrey.”

As Duke turned away, a splash of light from the back porch fell over his face, and Audrey could have sworn that for a split second his eyes glowed faintly in the dim light.

**

Audrey didn’t wait for Monday to follow up on Duke’s lead.  After a quick call to the Department of Corrections, she called Nathan, knowing he wouldn’t mind that it was a Saturday.

Nathan met her at the station, looking curious and hopeful.  “You said you had a new lead.”

Audrey nodded.  “Picked up a rumor that a convicted killer named Max Hansen’s out of prison and in town lying low.  DOC confirms he’s out.”

Nathan looked absolutely gutted.  “He was never supposed to get parole.  What the hell happened?”

“Overcrowding.  The warden granted parole hearings to a number of prisoners whose original sentences didn’t include possibility of parole.  Although in Hansen’s case, given the atrocity of his crimes, I’m wondering if bribery was involved.  Are you okay?”

Nathan rubbed a hand over his face.  “Really not.  We need to mobilize all officers, comb this town until we either find him or confirm he’s somewhere else.  If Max Hansen has come back to Haven, the next full moon will bring more bodies, I guarantee you that.  I’m only surprised that he’s restraining himself to only killing once a month.  We should check if his original killings were on a full moon.”

“I already did, and they were.  That must have been before your time on the force, though – if you don’t mind me saying so, you seem to be taking it pretty personally.”

“Sharp as always, Parker,” Nathan sighed.  He got up and closed the door to his office.  “What I’m about to say doesn’t leave this room.  To my knowledge only three people alive know this, and I don’t want it to be more than four.”

“I’ll respect your confidence, barring its relevance as testimony.”

“No, no relevance here.  It’s just…I’m adopted.  Garland Wuornos, the former chief, became my stepfather when I was two.  I didn’t know this until just a few years ago, though.  Duke came to me and told me he’d met Hansen in prison and the guy bragged about being my real father. I didn’t believe it, I figured he was just trying to get under my skin.  But it bugged me.  I asked the chief, and that conversation went south in a big way.  He died a few days later, with bad blood still between us.”

Audrey took Nathan’s hands in hers.  “I’m sorry.  That’s terrible.”

Nathan squeezed her hands.  “I don’t give a damn about Hansen.  He’s not my father, he’s a sadistic murderer and I’m _nothing_ like him.  My father was Garland Wuornos, who lived and died keeping Haven safe.  We’re going to find Hansen and send him back behind bars to rot where he belongs.”

Audrey nodded.  “Your father would be proud of you.”

“Thanks, Audrey,” Nathan said quietly.  “That means a lot to me.”

“It’s the truth.”  She gave his hands a pat and let go of them, heading back over to her own desk.  They worked in silence for a while before Audrey ventured, “Is that the real reason things went bad between you and Duke?”

Nathan looked a little uncomfortable.  “I wasn’t lying to you when you asked the first time.  We really were friends, I really did want him to get out of that life, and I really did resent it when he didn’t.”

“It’s okay, Nathan, we’d just barely met.  I can understand why you didn’t want to tell me something so personal.”

“It’s just…if he’d just kept his mouth shut.  I still would have lost my father but there wouldn’t have been any doubt that he was my father.  We wouldn’t have argued, wouldn’t have been angry with each other when he died.  Things between us were always…difficult, we weren’t close, we were never a warm and fuzzy happy loving family, but he was still my father.  I never wanted things to end that way.  It was never any of Duke’s business anyhow, what right did he have to ruin that?”

“What if Duke wasn’t trying to ruin anything?” Audrey said gently.  “What if he thought you really had a right to know?  I’d want to know something like that, if it was me.”

“Duke probably just couldn’t stand seeing me with a family when he had none.  His parents treated him like shit and his siblings abandoned him, so he wanted to make me just as miserable.”

“Or maybe because he’d never had a good family of his own, he thought yours was strong enough to heal from something like that.  And I’m sure it probably would have, if you’d had more time.”

“Maybe.  Chief was stubborn as hell and I picked that up from him.”

“Either way, would you be any happier if you found out Duke had lied to you about it all this time?”

“No,” Nathan admitted reluctantly.

“The minute he found out he was in an impossible situation, one with no good outcome.  Lie to you, or hurt you.  He chose what he thought you could recover from.  He chose what he thought was right.  He chose honesty.”

Nathan was silent.

“It’s not Duke’s fault your father never told you any of this, or that the conversation went badly when you asked him about it, or that he died before you could reconcile.  This must have been absolutely terrible for you, I can’t even imagine, but it’s not right to blame Duke for it.  And I think deep down you know that.”

“It doesn’t matter now anyhow,” Nathan muttered.  “Finding Hansen before he kills again should be our focus.”

Audrey let it go.

But a few days later when Nathan went to pick up lunch, the takeout bags were from the Grey Gull.

**

Duke waved Audrey down as she was heading out after dinner at the Gull.  “Hey, Audrey, can I ask you something?”

“Of course.  What’s up?”

“Is something going on with Nate?  He’s been in here every couple days or so for lunch, and he’s actually being civil.  Like, not making conversation or anything but he doesn’t give me attitude, he’s polite to the staff, he even tips well.  Is this his new technique for shadowing me or something?  I gotta admit I’m pretty weirded out by it.”

Audrey had to laugh.  “Sorry, sorry, not laughing at you, it’s just…oh, Nathan.  He has absolutely no people skills, I swear.  I think in a weird way he’s trying to make nice.”

“Make nice.  By getting lunch here.  Why?  And I mean both why would he view that as a way to make nice, and why is he trying to make nice at all?”

“To answer the first question, at one point he accused me of, and I quote, ‘supporting your criminal lifestyle’ by eating here, and I pointed out to him that he had things backwards - that coming here is supporting your legitimate lifestyle, and that boycotting the place would only force you to rely on criminal income.  So I think he realizes that refusing to eat here wasn’t a good call.  Possibly he’s even trying to encourage you to go straight.  Or at least make sure you have the opportunity.”

“Yeah, he tried that once before.  It didn’t work out,” Duke frowned.

“True, but I’m guessing that his previous ‘encouragement’ consisted primarily of telling you what you ought to do and judging you for not doing it, without any practical help.”

Duke snorted.  “How well you know him.”

“As far as why he’s trying to make nice at all – he told me about Hansen being his biological father.  In the ensuing discussion, I pointed out that it wasn’t fair or right for him to resent you for telling him, that it’s not your fault that things went badly with his dad, and that you did what you thought was right.”

“And he actually admitted you were right?” Duke said skeptically.

“Not in so many words, but he didn’t argue the point.  And you know Nathan, he’s more about actions than words anyhow.  Honestly I think he knew all along that his resentment was misplaced, but he had so much guilt and grief and anger that he couldn’t sort it out.”

“Which doesn’t excuse the way he treated me.”

“Of course not.  But I think – I hope – that he realizes he was wrong, and that he’s trying, in his own awkward way, to make things right.  He said you two were best friends, once.  Maybe that bond isn’t something that’s lost forever.  For good or bad there’s clearly a strong connection between you two.”

“He’s got a long way to come before we could ever be friends again.  He might prefer actions over words, but I’d need to hear him admit he was wrong and apologize before there’s ever gonna be anything good between us.  And he’s gonna need to try to make things right.  He has no idea the damage he’s done.”

“I know.  But I think if he did know, he might not be against the idea of trying to fix it.  He hasn’t said as much but I’d bet he misses being friends with you.  He didn’t really have anyone in his life before I came to town.”

“I’m not gonna cry him a river over that.”

“I’m not asking you to.  All I ask is that if he is trying to make things right between you, give him a chance to, okay?”

“Why do you even care?” Duke asked curiously.

“Because I like both of you and I hate seeing things between you be so bad when they don’t have to be.”

“Pretty tenderhearted for an FBI agent, aren’t you?”

Audrey merely shrugged.  “There are worse things to be.”

**

“Hey,” Duke said as Nathan turned to leave with his lunch.  “Apparently you and I need to talk.  So come back at close when we can both get good and drunk, because I can’t do this sober and I’m pretty sure you can’t either.”

Nathan snorted, but there was a hunt of wry amusement about it.  He didn’t agree but he didn’t argue either, and just before closing that night he slipped back in.  Duke slid a bottle of whiskey and a glass across to him and they drank in silence while the staff closed up.  Neither of them said anything until they were alone, and in fact not for a good while after that.

“We haven’t found Hansen,” was how Nathan chose to break the silence.

“Never figured it’d be easy,” Duke said neutrally.

Nathan was silent again for a bit before admitting, “Thought he might try to see me.  What you said about…he said I was stolen from him.”

Duke gave him a curious look.  “But he hasn’t.  Come to see you, I mean.  That’s good, right?”

“It’d stop the killing.  If I found him I could arrest him, get him back in jail.  But…kinda glad he hasn’t,” Nathan sounded distinctly guilty.

Duke gave him a long considering look.  “You wish I hadn’t told you?”

“Yes.  But that’s cowardly.  To hide from the truth.  And how it all went wrong…”  Nathan struggled with himself for a minute before admitting, “Wasn’t your fault.”

Duke gave him a long look, then nodded.  “I don’t know about cowardly.  Truth isn’t some absolute good.  It’s useless if all it does is make you miserable.”

“So why’d you tell me?”

“Because I knew you disagree.”

There was another long silence before Nathan said, “I’m not like him.  I’m never gonna be like him.”

Duke took a slow sip of his whisky, weighing his words, wondering if they would help or harm.  “But you’re scared you are.  Afraid his poison was passed down, afraid you can’t help being what he made you.  Afraid you’ll look in a mirror one day and a monster will be looking back.”

Nathan said nothing, his jaw clenched, but Duke knew him well enough to read the anger and fear in his face.

“Believe me, Nate, no one in this town understands that better than I do,” Duke said quietly.  “I’ve spent my whole life trying not to be Simon Crocker.  Hell, my brother Wade and I made a pact when we were little that if either of us ever turned out like our old man, the other would beat the shit out of him until he came to his senses.”

“Did you ever have to?” Nathan asked seriously.

“Never dared try.  Probably should have, though.  Might’ve snapped him out of it.”

Nathan considered that.  “Things were…pretty bad, huh?”

Duke snorted.  “Wow, Nate, you have a true gift for understatement.”

“No, I mean…” Nathan poured himself another drink, spilling a little.  “I knew it was bad.  Or I thought I knew.  But I never really did, did I?”

Duke gave him a thoughtful look.  “No, you never really understood.  But I wouldn’t have wanted you to.  I didn’t want anyone knowing how bad things got.”

“Still.  Some friend.  Figured everything was so simple.”

“We were young and dumb, of course everything seemed simple.”

“Never is, though.”

“Really not,” Duke sighed.

“Ever wish your life were different?  The whole college and a steady job and a wife and kids routine?” Nathan wanted to know.

“That was never in the cards for me, no matter what you might’ve thought when we were teenagers.”

“If it was.  Had been.  Would you want that?”

Duke gave that due consideration.  “Never even thought about it,” he said slowly.  “I knew that’d never be my life, so I never wasted time imagining it.”

Nathan waited, his silence patient.

“I’ve been a lot of amazing places, seen a lot of amazing things, met a lot of amazing people.  I’d never trade that to have spent live my whole life in this tiny town.  But it’s not exactly been all roses and sunshine.  Spent a lot of time on the ragged edge - a lot of time running, a lot of time wondering if tomorrow there’ll be food in my stomach and fuel in the tank, a lot of time wondering if my road has run out.  Still not sure it hasn’t, really.  But I’m trying.”

“Was it worth it?” Nathan asked quietly.

“Honestly?  I don’t know.  I wouldn’t be who I am without that life, so I don’t know if I can regret it.  But these days…” he looked around.  “I know you think this place is just a front for whatever shady business I get up to.  But the Gull means something to me, Nate.  It’s something I built, something good.  No shame, no guilt, no looking over my shoulder.  I can’t say that about much.  And I can’t live that life forever, you know?  I can’t keep running.  I’m tired, Nate.”  He rubbed a hand over his face.  “So damn tired sometimes.”

“Was it my fault?”  Nathan asked.  “When you came back, did I keep you in that life?”

“That’s a pretty arrogant view,” Duke smiled thinly.  “You didn’t help, that’s for damn sure.  With my record no one would ever have hired me.  But no one was going to anyhow.  It wasn’t just you, it was this whole damn town.  Deciding who and what I was when I was still just a kid.  I fought it, Nate, I swear I did.  I fought harder than you could ever know.  But you can only fight the tide for so long before it drags you down.  The minute I was born a Crocker, there was only ever going to be one path for me.”  He sounded weary and without hope, his head bowed in defeat, and Nathan hated it.  Hated himself for being part of it.

“It’s not too late,” he said impulsively.  “You have the Gull.  You can make a better life.  The life you want.”

“You’re gonna help me with that, huh?  Like you helped the first time?”

Nathan looked guilty.  “I was young and dumb, like you said.  Figured I knew everything.  I should’ve listened.  I know it might be too late but I’m listening now.”

“And what am I supposed to say?  I’m supposed to come down from on high and tell you how to fix my life?  If I knew that, I’d have done it already.”

“I don’t know, Duke,” Nathan said honestly.  “I don’t know how to make things right.  Don’t even know if I can.  But I want to try.”

Duke swallowed around a lump in his throat.  “And if you can’t?  If it’s too late, if everything’s too wrong to ever make right?”

“Then I should be the one to live with that.  Not you.  You already have, all this time.”

“Still a maudlin drunk, I see.  Reminds me of when Hannah Driscoll dumped you and I brought over that case of beer so you could drown your sorrows.”

Nathan smiled a little at the memory.  He hadn’t forgotten those long nights, sneaking out after curfew to drive around aimlessly or sit on the beach with Duke, talking about everything and nothing.  He’d missed that, even when he hadn’t been able to admit it to himself.  “Maudlin, maybe.  Not wrong.”

“Whatever.  I still have photos from that night, you know.  And let me tell you, you were _really_ drunk.”

Nathan sat up indignantly.  “Yeah?  Well, guess who has those photos from the post-prom party.”

“Shit, not the naked air guitar?”

“Yup, those ones,” Nathan said smugly.

“Low blow, Wuornos.”

Nathan poured them both another drink and raised his glass.  “To better days.”

“To better days,” Duke echoed, clinking glasses with him.  He wondered if Nathan meant the past, or the future.

**

“You’ve been in a good mood lately,” Audrey commented to Nathan as they readied for the next full moon’s stakeout.  Tensions were running high – sightings of Hansen had been reported but none of the officers had been able to confirm them, much less bring him in.   Audrey figured Nathan could use a topic of conversation to take his mind off of things.

Indeed, he looked grateful for the distraction even as he struggled to put into words what had changed.  “Yeah, it’s been…Duke and I, we…hashed some things out.”

“That’s great news,” Audrey smiled, warm and genuine.

Nathan blushed faintly, looking embarrassed.  “It’s not like we’re best friends again or anything.  But…I admitted some things, he admitted some things, and we…not exactly forgave and forgot, but maybe now we can…mend.”

Audrey put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed.  “I’m really happy for you.  And proud of you.   I know it’s not easy to admit when you’re in the wrong.  I think this will be really good for both of you.”

“Might be right.  Feels good to put all that behind us.”

“Well, make the most of your fresh start,” Audrey said as they headed out to the Bronco again.

The plan was much the same as last month, but almost from the beginning things felt different.  After the three deaths last month, people were taking the warning to stay indoors seriously, hiding behind locked doors and drawn curtains, leaving the streets oppressively empty.  Tension lay heavy on the air, discouraging conversation and stretching nerves taut.  Audrey’s gut warned of danger and the back of her neck prickled, and looking at Nathan she knew he felt it too.

“We’re being watched.”

He nodded shortly.  “Stalked.  Been following us. No sign of anything, just…felt it, almost from the start.”

“Same here.  The question is, can we draw him out?”

“Haven’t seen a thing.  He’s been keeping his distance so far.  Probably spook if we stop now.”

“Good point.  Let’s keep going, act like we haven’t noticed anything.  Maybe we can lure him into getting bolder.”  How had their pursuer kept pace without a car?  Audrey hadn’t seen any other car, even one without lights – or indeed any other movement at all – on the road.

“If we can get him cocky, we can act like we’ve spotted something, stop somewhere defensible.  He might take the bait.”

“Agreed.  He’s probably too smart to approach us if we go anywhere that’s too obviously a trap, but at least we can choose where to make our stand.”

Nathan nodded, his expression grim as he continued their slow patrol.

At first they had only instinct to warn them of the presence in the night.  But before much longer, there were other things tugging at the fringes of their consciousness.  Hints of movement at the very edge of their sight, gone when they turned to look.  Menacing shapes that melted into harmless objects as they approached.  A trace of blood-scent so faint they couldn’t be sure it was real.  Sounds they couldn’t possibly have heard over the rumble of the engine.  Nathan and Audrey communicated these impressions as they occurred in terse, matter-of-fact descriptions, unwilling to let their imaginations lead them into panic but knowing that such details could be important.

It became increasingly clear that there was definitely something out there.  Hints of a pale blur – faint, indistinct, barely glimpsed at first but soon indisputable, shadowing them in the darkness.  Audrey watched it like a hawk while Nathan drove, bring them closer to their chosen location.

They pulled up at the curve in the forest road, getting out with their backs to the truck and their weapons out.  Audrey slid around to stand with Nathan, the two of them staring out into the moonlight.

The wolf stepped into the road.

Audrey kept her weapon trained on it, her eyes darting between it and its surroundings, looking for its handler.  But Nathan frowned.  It looked exactly like a wolf in its build and markings – but he knew that wolves weren’t as large as most people imagined, smaller than the largest breeds of dog.  No real wolf could ever have reached this size.

“Parker, wait,” he murmured quietly.  “This feels wrong.  This isn’t an ordinary wolf.  Ordinary wolves run from humans.  A rabid one would have attacked by now.  And a trained attack animal would be showing signs of hostility or at least tension.  This thing feels like it’s…thinking about us.  Sizing us up, deciding what to do.”

“A lot of good that’ll do us, if it decides to attack.”

“Not so sure it will,” Nathan stared.  Why the hell did the wolf seems almost…familiar?

“Nathan,” Audrey said quietly as they faced down the huge animal, “Look at its neck.”

It was hard to see in the dim light, and if Nathan hadn’t seen those necklaces a hundred times before then he wouldn’t have known what he was looking at.  When he understood, his eyes went wide.  “Duke?”

The wolf whined and shuddered, crouching as if it were in pain.  It stretched out a paw towards him pleadingly, the eyes unsettlingly human.

Nathan cautiously went over to the wolf, crouching down beside it as its body began to shift and warp.  It cried out in pain with a voice that was half animal, half human, the human half horribly familiar.

Audrey came over too, carefully resting a hand on its back, trying not to be sick at the feel of bones and muscle and skin shifting beneath her hand.  “Duke, it’s going to be okay.  We’re here.”

He looked at her pitifully, the human shape of his face slowly emerging from the furred snout, the bone reshaping itself with sickening crunches.  He tried to say something but his voice wasn’t human yet, resulting in a garbled sound.

“Don’t try to talk yet, Duke,” Nathan told him.  “Just take it easy.”

Duke – as it was increasingly indisputable this was - gave a low moan and lay quietly against the pavement, shivering in the cold Maine air as fur receded and left his skin bare.

“I’ll get blankets from the car,” Audrey offered as Nathan pulled off his jacket and draped it over the bare form.

Now fully human, Duke looked up at Nathan.  “How?” he rasped.  “How did you call me back?”

“I don’t know,” Nathan told him.  “When I woke up this morning all this was completely impossible.”

“What you did _is._ At least for you.”

Nathan was about to ask him what he meant when Audrey came back over with the blankets.  Duke seemed barely capable of standing on his own, so they bundled the blankets around him and helped him into the back of the Bronco, turning the heat to maximum.

“I need to get back to the Rouge.  I should have been locked in.  I’m not safe,” Duke said hoarsely.  And yet, somehow he wasn’t so sure that was true.  They had called him back.  His pack.  He could feel them grounding him, keeping him sane.  Keeping him human.

“We won’t let you hurt anyone.” Audrey reassured him.

“Security aside, what do you need?” Nathan asked, ever practical.

Duke struggled for a long minute before he bowed his head in humiliation and whispered, “Stay.”

“Of course we’ll stay, Duke,” Audrey reassured him, looking back over her seat to give him a smile.  “We were already planning to.  We’ll get you back home, get you something to wear, get you something to eat or drink if you need it, see you through this safe and comfortable.”

Duke fought to control his expression, willing himself not to cry.  It had been so long since he’d had pack to stay with him on the full moon, much less pack that would take care of him the way pack should.

The drive back to the Rouge didn’t take long, and by the time they arrived Duke insisted he could walk on his own.  Audrey and Nathan hovered close, ready to help if he stumbled.  The frigid exposed metal of the deck must have been brutal on his bare feet but Duke didn’t seem to care.  He went right past the galley and cabin, heading down deep into the hold of his ship.   A heavy metal door was at one end of the corridor, the clothes Duke had been wearing earlier that day folded in a neat pile beside it.  Duke laboriously pulled the door open and went inside.

They followed him in, staring around them.  It was a tiny room, barely more than a closet, possibly not even large enough for Duke to stretch out full-length on the floor.  The entire thing was bare metal, bitterly icy in the ship’s unheated hold.  The metal was scored with the marks of heavy claws and teeth where the wolf had frantically tried to free itself.  There was no food or water or bed, not single scrap of comfort – it looked like exactly what it was, a cage.

Nathan wondered how Duke had gotten out.  Audrey felt sick imagining Duke imprisoned there.

Duke shed the blankets and borrowed jacket, and set them outside the door, naked and shivering.  He curled up in a corner, shaking his head at Audrey’s protest.  “If I change again I’ll ruin anything I might be wearing, even the blankets.  No point.  I’ll be fine.  I do this every month.”

He got up when Audrey came over, backing away.  “You can go upstairs.  It’s enough if you’re close by.  It’s not safe for you to be here.  And I need to be locked in.”

“The hell we’re leaving you here like this,” Nathan frowned.  “I wouldn’t treat a serial killer this way, much less you.”

“Nathan, I have to.  You understand.  I can’t hurt people, please.”

“You didn’t hurt us,” Audrey pointed out.  “You didn’t even try.  You became human again.  You might not even change back at all, you could be done for the night.  And even if you changed, we won’t let you hurt anyone.”

“You said we called you back,” Nathan said quietly.  “If we have to, we’ll keep calling you back.  As often as you need us to.”

Audrey nodded, rubbing Duke’s back soothingly, worried at the chilled skin.  “Come on Duke, come upstairs, let us get you to bed where you belong, where it’s warm and soft and comfortable.  We’ll make you something hot to drink to warm you up, run a bath if you’d like.”

“Audrey,” Duke said brokenly.  “Don’t, I can’t, please.”

Nathan crouched beside him, giving his shoulder a squeeze.  “You can.  It’ll be okay.  We’ll take care of everything.”

Duke gave a soft whimper and leaned into their touch, his head sinking forward in a defeated nod.  How could he resist his pack wanting to take care of him?  It was as undeniable as the moon.

They wrapped him back into the blankets and got him upstairs, back to the living quarters.  “Nathan, why don’t you help him get a shower while I make something hot to eat?” Audrey proposed.

Duke protested he’d be fine, but Nathan nodded (in spite of a blush).  “I’ll keep my back turned if you want me to, but you were pretty shaky on your feet, you shouldn’t be left alone.”

Humiliating as it was, Duke couldn’t manage more than that token protest, all desire to argue swept out of him by ‘you shouldn’t be left alone’.

Nathan sat on the closed lid of the toilet, eyes politely averted, while Duke stepped in the shower.  Duke sighed at the sting of the spray, knowing the water wasn’t as painfully hot as it felt against his icy skin.  He always wanted a shower when he changed back, the desperation of the trapped animal clinging to his skin afterward and the hot water soothing the inevitable bone-deep ache his transforming flesh left behind.

By the time he got out he was feeling much better, but he still allowed Nathan to wrap him in a towel and bundle him into a bathrobe, shepherding him out to the galley.  Audrey had found soup and cocoa, and had both of them hot and ready.  Duke wasn’t even hungry but he allowed them to fuss him into emptying the mug and bowl.  The moon was setting by the time he was done, leaving him drained and exhausted.  He dragged his feet as they coaxed him to his bed, collapsing onto it carelessly.  He didn’t protest as they arranged him more properly, getting him straightened out, tucking a pillow beneath his head and pulling the blankets up over him.

“Stay,” he mumbled again, his limbs too leaden to reach out to them the way he wanted.

“We’ll be right here,” Audrey reassured him.

‘Not going anywhere,” Nathan agreed.

As he drifted off, Duke could swear he felt fingers in his hair.

Nathan looked over at Audrey, quirking a questioning eyebrow at the affectionate touch.

“Physical contact seems to help him,” she said softly, not wanting to disturb Duke.  “What you said about us calling him back, I think we…we anchor him.  I think that’s why he wants us to stay.  Maybe it would be enough if we were just close by, like he said, but every time we touch him he leans into it like he’s starved for it.  I think he needs that contact, needs to hear our voices, as much as he needs our presence.”

“Wolves are pack animals,” Nathan mused.  “They live in close-knit family groups.  If he has those instincts, that drive to be part of a group…he’s been alone for a long time.”

Audrey nodded.  “So he made his own pack.  Us.”

“Gotta need it pretty bad to pick me,” Nathan smiled tightly, then changed the subject.  “Did you see the lock on that room?”

“A keypad on the interior wall beside the door,” Audrey nodded.  “It’s a smart idea.  A wolf couldn’t open it, but he wouldn’t have to rely on someone else to let him out once he’s human again.  Risky, though - if was rampaging around as a wolf and damaged it, he might not be able to get out.”

Nathan shivered, thinking of Duke trapped in that barren cell for days, slowly dying while no one even realized he was missing.  He shook his head and refocused on the task at hand.  “You’re right, there’s no way he could have gotten out.  Even if he retained enough of himself to know the code, he wouldn’t have the dexterity to punch it in, and it’s not something he could do by accident.  Someone let him out.  Question is, who?  And why?”

“Isn’t it always,” Audrey frowned, looking at the sleeping werewolf.

**

Apparently turning into a wolf and back was exhausting, because Duke was still soundly sleeping when Audrey woke the next morning.  Nathan was already awake, sitting with his back against the headboard and looking down at Duke with a thoughtful frown.

“What are you thinking?” she asked softly.

“That we’ve found the murder weapon.”

Audrey looked relieved.  “For a second there I thought you were going to say that we’d found the murderer, and I was going to have to be upset with you.”

“It crossed my mind,” Nathan said frankly.  “But that cell down in the hold obviously saw a lot of use.  He wouldn’t have a safe room, wouldn’t need anything like that, if he spent his full moons running free committing murder.  And I can’t come up with any reason he might have been using it up until last summer and then changed his mind and started killing instead.  Plus, he alibied out last month.”

“Unless the Rouge has an underwater escape hatch he could’ve used to duck out unseen.  Or werewolves have some other ability that let him slip out unnoticed.  For all we know they can fly, and we have three dead bodies from last month that imply he got out somehow,” Audrey pointed out.  “But there’s no way he’s doing it voluntarily.  Practically the first thing he said when he changed back was ‘I need to be locked up, I’m not safe’.  He kept insisting on it once we got him back here, you saw how much persuading it took before he let us bring him upstairs.  And he regularly subjects himself to that nightmarish safe room rather than waiting out the full moon somewhere more comfortable but less secure.  Those are not the actions of someone who’d decide to spend the full moon killing people as a wolf.  Hell, those aren’t even the actions of someone who would be okay with having done so accidentally.  Those are the actions of a man who is adamant about keeping himself from being a danger to others, who would rather suffer than take even the smallest chance he might hurt someone else.  All the evidence says it’s more likely that someone let him out.  Maybe that someone had a way to get him past the patrol.  Hell, maybe a wizard made him invisible.  If werewolves are on the table can we really rule anything out?”

Nathan stoically refused to acknowledge that wizards were a possibility, opting to follow a somewhat more logical line of inquiry.  “Something else about that safe room – means he’s not in his right mind as a wolf.  It wouldn’t be necessary if he were just Duke in a fur coat, whether or not he was willing to hurt anyone.  So either he’s aware but can’t control himself, or he’s not in there at all.”

“I don’t know whether to hope for the former or the latter,” Audrey admitted.  “If he’s conscious as a wolf and retains those memories, then he might be able to tell us who let him out.  But at the same time then he’d remember watching himself commit all those murders, and how horrible would that be for him?  Even without the memory, he must be torn up inside.”

“He doesn’t remember,” Nathan said without a doubt.  “He wouldn’t have been okay all this time if he remembered being helpless to stop himself from murdering people.  He’s got his flaws but he’d have turned himself in on day one to keep himself from killing anyone else.”

“Which begs the question,” Audrey said slowly.  “What was he doing about all this?  He’s a werewolf, people are dying from suspicious wolf attacks, he must have thought he could be responsible.  Was he waking up the next morning still in his cell and couldn’t figure out how he was doing it?  Was he beefing up security more each month to try to contain himself?  Wearing a lot of silver on the hopes of poisoning himself?  He must have been doing something.”

“We can ask when he wakes up.  But here’s something.  Whoever let him out last night must have known not only that werewolves exist, but that Duke is one.  Who the hell could possibly know that?  I’ve known Duke since we were five and I had no idea.”

“What about his family?  I know they weren’t close but it’s hard to hide something like this from people you live with.”

“Assuming he was a werewolf back then, and didn’t get bitten as an adult.  But even if he was, Duke’s the only member of his family to have lived in Haven for years.  His siblings all moved away as they grew up, as far as I know none of them’s come back for even a visit – not even his next oldest brother Wade, and they were close as kids.  His father’s dead and his mother disappeared when he was barely a teenager.  And even if one of them showed up, I can’t imagine their motive for letting him out.”

“There’s one other person I can think of who would know,” Audrey mused.  “The werewolf who bit him.  Maybe it happened during a fight and this other werewolf’s holding a grudge.”

“What if we weren’t wrong,” Nathan said slowly.  “Max Hansen.  He’s been in town, lying low.  We thought he was the murderer but what if he’s just been letting Duke out?  For all we know he’s a werewolf too, and could have bitten Duke.  We know they met, and Max Hansen getting in a jailyard fight and biting someone wouldn’t have raised any eyebrows.”

“That could be why Duke pointed him out to-” Audrey stopped herself, remembering that she’d intended to keep the source of that information confidential.  But Nathan just shrugged, looking entirely unsurprised, so she continued.  “If Hansen’s a wolf too, some of those kills might be his.  Maybe he’s trying to build a pack and it has to be cemented by making a kill together or some weird werewolf thing.  Maybe Duke hasn’t killed anyone yet,” she said hopefully.

“No blood on him last night when we found him,” Nathan pointed out.  “If he was tailing us all night then he wasn’t off attacking other people.”

“Nice thought,” came a sleepy mumble from between them.  “Really don’t wan’ killed people.”

Audrey couldn’t help smiling at Duke’s barely awake comment, though she felt a little guilty that he’d woken to them discussing whether he was a killer, even inadvertently.

“How are you feeling?” Nathan frowned worriedly.

“Fine,” Duke yawned and rolled over, stretching.  “Damn sight better than last night.”

“That was horrible for you.  I can’t imagine going through that,” Audrey said.

“Yeah, it’s bad,” Duke shrugged matter-of-factly.  “It’s better if you have a pack, but any way you look at it, bones are breaking, organs are shifting around and reshaping, muscles are growing or shrinking.  If werewolves didn’t heal almost instantly, none of us would survive the Change.”

“Huh.  Guess that makes sense.  Never thought about why werewolves are supposed to be able to do that,” Nathan mused.

“Yeah.  There are exceptions, of course, but for the most part werewolves recover in seconds from anything that doesn’t outright kill us.  Which is really, really hard to do.  It’s come in handy a few times, I’ll tell you.”

“Your reputation for leading a charmed life,” Nathan realized.

Duke nodded.  “It wasn’t luck that let me survive all those times people were trying to kill me.”

“But the injuries still hurt, don’t they?” Audrey asked quietly.  “You were in a lot of pain last night.”

“Can’t have everything,” Duke gave her a crooked little smile.  After a moment’s hesitation he got up and padded around the room getting dressed, not looking at them.  “But it helped, what you did.  A lot.”

“We’re glad we could help.  What you’ve been going through on your own sounds terrible,” Audrey said quietly.

Duke just shrugged.  “That’s life.  Come on, I’ll make you breakfast.”

“You don’t have to cook for us,” Nathan protested.

Duke grinned.  “I’ll make pancakes.”

“…I’ll set the table.”

**

They weren’t even done with breakfast when Audrey and Nathan’s phones rang.  Their faces turned grim as they answered and listened to the news.  Duke went pale and he pushed away his plate, feeling sick.  Their faces could only mean a body had been found – one he’d almost certainly created.

Audrey hung up and reached across the table to take his hands in hers.  “We don’t know this was you.  And even if it was, isn’t wasn’t your fault.  You weren’t yourself.”

“I know.  Wish that made me feel any better about it,” he said honestly.

“Then focus on the ‘maybe it wasn’t you’ part,” Nathan advised, giving Duke’s shoulder a squeeze.  “Innocent until proven guilty.”

“Oh, _now_ you remember that,” Duke joked weakly.  “Picked a hell of a time.”

“We’ll be back as soon as we can,” Audrey reassured him.  “If you want company, text us and we’ll work something out.  You’re not alone, we’re here if you need us.”

“Thanks,” Duke said honestly.  “That helps.  I have to get to the Gull but I’ll be around whenever you get a break.  I’m sure you have a million and one questions.”

“Feels more like ten million,” Nathan agreed, giving Duke’s shoulder a pat as he pulled away to go get ready.  Audrey was right, he observed – Duke had relaxed at the touch, and leaned after him as if reluctant to lose the contact.

**

The face was maimed beyond recognition, so until someone was reported missing they would have to see what dental records turned up.  The killing had been as brutally violent as any of the others and Audrey felt deep fury at anyone who would make Duke responsible for such a horror when he so clearly, so desperately, wanted not to hurt anyone.

They began their rounds checking with the closest neighbors, but the body had barely arrived at the morgue when Nathan got a call from Gloria.  He put it on speaker.

“Don’t tell me you got an ID that fast?”

“Easiest one I ever did.  Once the clothes came off he had ink everywhere.  Guess whose prison records it matched.”

Audrey felt her stomach sink.  “Max Hansen?”

“Got it in one, kid.  They sent over his dental records and I’ll check just in case, but it’s a certainty.  This isn’t your generic butterfly tramp stamp or dumb jock barbed wire bicep.”

“All right.  Thanks.  Let us know what else you find,” Nathan told her.  “Especially if there’s anything unusual about him.”

Gloria snorted.  “I’ll put that in a memo and title it ‘shit I already know’.”

Audrey couldn’t help laughing as Nathan hung up.  She sobered quickly enough, though, as Nathan got up to close the door to his office.  “Are you okay?” she asked gently.

“I’m glad,” Nathan said flatly.  “You read his file.  Man like that’s better out of the world.  Beyond that it has nothing to do with me.”

Audrey nodded, knowing better than to pursue the topic.  “Think Duke turned on him?”

“Logically that would be the simplest explanation.  But it’s _too_ simple.  If Hansen was human, he must have had some way to keep Duke from attacking him, otherwise it would have been suicide to let him out.  If Hansen was another werewolf, why is he maimed to death when there wasn’t a scratch on Duke?”

“Duke would have healed, he said so.”

“By that logic, Hansen would have too.  Unless the damage was post-mortem, I suppose.  And he was dead long before dawn, so he ought to still be a wolf.  Unless they change back when they die, god knows,” she grimaced.  “I don’t like this.  The whole werewolf thing yanks the rug out from under this whole investigation, we’re starting from scratch and we don’t have half the information we need to get anywhere with the facts we do have.”

“We need to talk to Duke.  If he’ll help us.”

“I’d hope we’re a little past that whole ‘don’t talk to cops’ thing.”

“Maybe.  But this isn’t just ratting out his petty criminal buddies.  Since werewolves aren’t general knowledge, they’re probably reluctant to reveal anything about themselves to others.  I can see why he wouldn’t trust just anyone.  You notice he didn’t tell us about any of this before.”

“What was he supposed to say? ‘Werewolves are real, come and check me out on the full moon if you want proof but keep in mind I’ll probably try to kill you’?”

“Point,” Nathan grunted.

“We can get lunch at the Gull and hopefully he’ll have time to sit with us out back and talk.  Until then let’s go over the case from square one in light of what we do know.”

Nathan nodded and went back to page one of the file.

**

As soon as they pulled into the driveway of the Grey Gull, it was obvious they wouldn’t have much chance to talk.  The parking lot was fuller than either of them had seen it before, the patio tables all filled.  Duke brightened when he saw them, holding up a finger in a ‘wait a minute’ gesture as he turned to one of his customers.

Audrey watched him with a smile.  Duke was in his element, his easy charm in full force as he chatted with patrons, spoke with the waitstaff, and managed things in the kitchen.  “This place is good for him,” she observed, leaning close to Nathan to be heard over the hubbub.

Nathan nodded, remembering what Duke had said about what the Gull meant to him.  “I’m glad it’s doing well.”

They’d given their order and were waiting for the takeout when Duke had a chance to come over.

“Duke.  Some crowd, huh?” Nathan greeted him.

Duke nodded, his smile fading.  “Word got out about Hansen.  General consensus is that he was the killer, and whatever trained animal he was using turned on him.  Which, maybe not wrong, I guess.  Everyone thinks the whole messy business is over, so they’re celebrating.”

“We don’t know anything for sure yet,” Audrey reminded him.  “I admit it doesn’t look good but we’ll figure out a way to know for sure.”

“And whoever killed Hansen was doing a public service,” Nathan said shortly.  “He was never going to stop, he openly admitted as much.  His death saved innocent lives.”

Duke gripped Nathan’s shoulder for a moment, and there was a lot that passed unspoken in the glance between them.

“I’m guessing it’ll be a late night, but give us a call when you close up,” Audrey said.  “We’ll probably still be at the station, we can meet you at the Rouge, or here, or wherever else you want to talk.”

Duke nodded.  “Will do.  Sorry I can’t stay.  The owner’s work is never done.”

**

Audrey was right on both counts – it was into the wee hours of the morning by the time Duke called, but she and Nathan were indeed still at the station.  Sounding exhausted but happy, Duke agreed to meet them at the Rouge.

He beat them there, and was napping in the Rover when they pulled up next to it.  He stretched and yawned as he got out.  “Remind me never to do another sixteen hour shift.  Worth it, but I swear crime is easier.”

Nathan snorted but didn’t argue, which won him an approving smile from Audrey.

Duke started a pot of his cinnamon coffee and filled mugs for all of them as they unpacked the food he’d brought home from the Gull, knowing that none of them would have had dinner yet.

“Duke, I think it’s time to set aside ‘I don’t talk to cops’,” Audrey said gently.  “Nathan and I are way out of our depth here and lack of intel like that gets people killed in the field.  We need to know what we’re up against.  But I’m not saying this has to be one-sided.  I’ll make you a deal, like that time we got drunk.”  She held up her copy of the case file, and set it on the table in front of him.  “All cards on the table, yours and ours.  We share the details of the case, you give us the werewolf angle on it.  That’s how we’re gonna solve this thing.”

“I think you might be right,” Duke admitted ruefully.  “God know I wasn’t getting anywhere figuring out what the hell to do.  But you gotta understand, I need to know this doesn’t leave the room.  There are people who can and will and do kill werewolves – even the wolves that haven’t hurt anyone.  So not only for my sake, but the sake of other wolves, this has to stay quiet.”

“Werewolf hunters.  Seriously?” Nathan asked.

“More like supernatural hunters.  Werewolves aren’t the only thing that goes bump in the night.  But let’s keep the focus on wolves for now.”

“You can trust us to keep your secrets,” Audrey reassured him.

“Even if we wanted to talk, no one would believe us.  We’d be branded as nutcases and out of our jobs,” Nathan pointed out.

“Nothing as reassuring as mutually assured destruction,” Duke snorted.  “All right, fire away.”

“My first question is, secrecy notwithstanding why haven’t we ever heard about werewolves?  You’d think if that werewolves were a thing, news would have gotten around somehow,” Audrey asked.

“Most werewolves have their shit together a whole lot better than I do,” Duke sighed.  “Contrary to pop culture portrayals, most werewolves are not actually mindless animalistic killers.  The vast majority of werewolves belong to a pack, and generally that means contented, stable, mostly family-based groups, very close-knit, very affectionate.  That support structure keeps them from going off the rails at the full moons.  They remain in control, they’re usually wolves at the full moon and human the rest of the time but they don’t have to be, and if they do shift then they retain their human minds.  Most werewolves spend full moon nights sneaking discreetly out to the nearest patch of woods where they romp around harmlessly with their pack until they’re tired, then go back to their den house and flop down together in a big puppy-pile to sleep it off.  Worst case, they hunt down a deer or something.  If something happens to break up the pack, any lone wolves will try to find a new one to join, or failing that they’ll try to make one by bonding with other lone wolves or even with humans.  Most of the time they succeed, and live out their lives peacefully and uneventfully – if slightly eccentric by human standards.  Being a werewolf does not predispose a person to violent bloody murder any more than being human does.  So usually there aren’t horrible messy deaths every full moon to tip off human law enforcement.”

“But you don’t have control,” Nathan pointed out.  “You wouldn’t need that safe room if you did.”

Duke grimaced, admitting reluctantly, “You’re not wrong.  Werewolves are not supposed to be alone, they are not made for that.  If a lone wolf can’t find or make a new pack, if they’re alone for too long, then you start to have a problem.  A wolf without a pack is…is broken, incomplete, unstable.  When the Change comes the human aspect vanishes completely and you’re left with a wolf that’s confused and angry and hurting because it’s alone.  And that makes it dangerous.  That’s why I have that room, so that when the full moon comes I can’t hurt anyone but me.  Most lone wolves have similar arrangements, because every wolf knows that werewolves killing humans leads to humans hunting werewolves, and that’s not a war we can win.”

“Maybe that’s the motive here,” Audrey mused.  “Maybe someone’s trying to start that war.”

“That’s a very interesting possibility,” Duke mused.  “Wouldn’t be the first time a bloodthirsty hunter has tried to stir up violence against peaceful supernaturals by framing them. Definitely a theory to leave on the table.  There’s also the possibility of a rogue wolf.  Accidents can happen, like last night – which, let me assure you I will be looking into that the second we’re done here.  But more than one death by werewolf usually means a wolf who’s _choosing_ to kill, either by not confining themselves at the full moon and running wild, or killing while in full control of themselves.  Lone wolves are uncommon enough, but rogue wolves, killers – that’s really rare.  The odds of one being here, in the same town as another lone werewolf, are very low.  And what’s especially weird is that whoever they are, they haven’t approached me, at least not while I’ve been human.  They don’t lose their instinct to bond, and they have to know I’m here, and that I’m alone.  A werewolf’s senses are a lot duller in human form, but they’d still have picked up the scent of another werewolf.”

“So there’s definitely another werewolf involved?” Audrey frowned.

Duke nodded.  “I’ve picked up their scent.  Not strong enough to identify or track them, not while I’m human, but enough to confirm another wolf is in town.  I’ve been trying to figure out what the hell to do about it.”

“Can you tell us whether Hansen was the werewolf?” Nathan asked.  “Gloria didn’t find anything unusual in the autopsy but if werewolves are fully human outside of a full moon, there might not have been anything to find.”

Duke grimaced.  “If you can get me in to see the body, at close range I can tell someone’s scent from human or werewolf.  Better to do it sooner rather than later, and how you’re gonna explain getting me in there, there I can’t help you.”

“We’ll get you in,” Nathan shrugged.

“So you don’t already know for sure one way or another?” Audrey asked.

Duke shook his head.  “He was human when I met him, but that doesn’t mean he still was when he died.  A bite from a werewolf will turn someone.  It’s not as common as you’d think, mostly because humans don't generally survive werewolf attacks.  Usually it's voluntary for both the donor and recipient, so to speak.  I honestly can't imagine any sane wolf wanting to turn a serial killer, but he might have forced one to turn him, used blackmail or threatened their family or something.  I can see him wanting to become a werewolf if he found out about them.  I figured it was plausible he might be the killer, I wasn’t making a point to send you on a wild goose chase.”

“I never thought you were,” Audrey reassured him.  “But if you thought he might be the killer, that means you didn’t think you were.”

Duke nodded.  “Up until last night, every full moon I’ve woken up still in the safe room.  Adding that to the fact that another werewolf was in town, I figured the other wolf was the killer.  In theory someone could have let me out and then somehow gotten me back in before I changed back, I wouldn’t remember any of it, but I sure wouldn’t envy anyone who’d try to put a feral werewolf in a cage.  Honestly not sure it could be done.”

“It would be nice if we could confirm this was all done by that other wolf,” Audrey mused.  “I know you’re probably going to say no, and that’s okay, but would you be willing to submit a DNA sample so we can see if it matches saliva in any of the victims?”

Duke shook his head even before she’d finished speaking.  “I am absolutely against having science get anywhere near me.  I can think of a few fates worse than ending up a lab rat, but not many.  Not that I don’t trust you two, but I know that yours won’t be the only hands it goes through.  Someone like a zoology expert gets hold of my samples and they’ll get visions of Nobel prizes dancing in their head.  And I’m not just refusing for my own sake, I want to be clear on that.  There’s a _reason_ werewolves stay secret.  I don’t want to be the reason that all this gets out in the open and xenophobic hysteria wipes out packs across the country.”

“Got a point,” Nathan conceded.

“Are you willing to tell us about werewolf attributes like physical ability, intelligence, and so forth?”

“In a broad sense,” Duke allowed.  “Probably won’t surprise you that wolves are strong and fast and have highly acute senses.  Very hard to kill, and don’t even bother asking how to do that.  Intelligence…depends on whether the human is in control.  A feral wolf like me is smarter than an animal but not as smart as a human.”

“So if it turns out the other werewolf wasn’t Hansen, we’ll have no idea how to contain or control it, no way to stop it from killing again,” Nathan said unhappily.

“Not as a wolf,” Duke shook his head.  “Your best bet is to identify them and deal with them when they’re human.”

“And then what?  We can’t throw a murderous werewolf in jail, it’d be a massacre,” Audrey pointed out.  “What usually happens when the supernatural community has a criminal that human law enforcement can’t handle?”

“As a general rule supernatural communities police themselves, to keep humans from finding out.  Doesn’t always work out well, though, as you’re seeing here.  Sometimes the community is too small, or the population is not forceful enough to deal with the bad guy.  Assuming anyone can even figure out who that is in the first place.  Most supernatural communities don’t have brilliant detective minds like yours.”

“Flattery will get you everywhere,” Audrey smiled.  “Speaking of detectives and policing, if there was a patrol car staking out the Rouge last month and they say you were here all night, is there any way you know of that you could have gotten past them?  Like, do werewolves have any kind of magical camouflaging ability?”

Duke rolled his eyes at Nathan, complaining mildly, “You had someone stake me out?  Asshole.  But no, nothing that I know of.  Even if someone let me out of the safe room, the only ways off the Rouge are the dock or the water.  The dock’s open and well lit, there’s not enough cover that even a wolf could make its way all down it unseen.  The water’s not a good bet either - wolves can swim but not particularly well, and even a supernatural wolf isn’t going to be climbing the harbor seawall.  I’d have to make it around the point to the beach, and that’s a long way to dog paddle.”

“So barring…unknown factors,” Nathan still wasn’t going to accept wizards, “that would tend to confirm that last month at least the deaths were the work of the other wolf.”

Audrey nodded, looking pleased.  “Okay, one last question then I’ll leave you be for now.  Your safe room, was it locked from the outside last night?”

“The safe room only locks from the inside because it’s there to keep me in, not keep anyone else out.  But I’m always careful to lock up the Rouge herself before I go in there, just on the off chance that someone – like you or Nate – might stop by.  I don’t ever want any poor innocent bastard stumbling across that door and hearing noises and deciding to open it.”

“Seems like pretty long odds on that happening, given how deep in the hold it is,” Audrey mused.

“Any odds are too high,” Duke shrugged.

“So whoever let you out must have broken in,” Nathan rubbed a hand over his face tiredly.

“It’s possible that they used a key, but unlikely.  I don’t go around giving out spare keys to anything of mine, much less my home, and I keep my own set close at all times.  I looked at the locks but,” he hesitated.  “They kind of already had lockpick scratches on them before any of this happened, so.  Y’know.  Not helpful.”

“Duke, there aren’t words for how little I care about your criminal past right now,” Nathan muttered.  It had been a very long day on very little sleep.

Duke blinked.  He wasn’t sure which was more surprising, hearing Nathan say he didn’t care, or hearing him acknowledge said criminal activities as being in the past.

Audrey reached over the table to give his hand a squeeze.  “Thank you for being open with us, I think we can call it a night for now.”

“If I can help, I will,” Duke said honestly.  “I want this bastard stopped as much as you do.  You going to be all right to drive home?” he asked dubiously as Nathan yawned cavernously.

Audrey checked her watch and grimaced.  It was three in the morning by this point, and she and Nathan had been awake since dawn after being up more than half the night patrolling.

“Look, not to be weird, but if you want to crash here, there’s plenty of space,” Duke offered awkwardly.  “It’s late, it’s a little icy out there, and if you’re half as tired as I am then you probably should not be behind the wheel.”

“Might have a point,” Nathan muttered.  Even the coffee wasn’t managing to keep him awake at this stage.

“Probably safer,” Audrey agreed, without reluctance.  Duke would probably be happier with his pack around.

Indeed, he looked a little pleased as he nodded.  “I’ll get out towels, pillows, blankets.  You’re welcome to use the shower or raid the galley.  I can lend you clothes, though they’ll look pretty silly on you, Audrey.”

“Silly nothing, girls wearing oversized mens’ clothes is adorable,” she grinned.

Nathan chuckled.  “Can’t argue that.”

“True, true,” Duke smiled.  “Anyhow, feel free to bed down wherever.  The couches in the stateroom are comfy, I might still have a guestroom that isn’t yet turned into storage, or I’m not gonna argue if anyone comes sneaking into my bed,” he said lightly.

“I’ll bear that in mind.”  Audrey suspected the offer wasn’t as flippant as Duke made it sound, but it was probably too soon to push Nathan that way.

“All righty then, I’m going to go set that stuff out for you, then take a desperately needed shower and then fall on my face.  Wake me up if you need anything, though.”

“Good night, Duke, sleep well.”

“’Night,” Nathan mumbled, already stretched out on a couch and barely awake.

Duke smiled fondly at the pair of them.  “Good night.”

**

Max Hansen wasn’t a werewolf.

Audrey stared at the mangled body, frustrated.  “You’re sure?  Not that I doubt your abilities, it’s just, he’s been in the fridge for days and we’re in a morgue with all sorts of other strong smells.  Is there any chance you might be wrong?”

Duke looked grumpy.  “You better not be doubting my abilities, bringing me in here to sniff a guy who’s been dead for days.  You know how bad bodies can smell, you can imagine what it’s like for me.  Yes, I’m sure.  Yes, the cold dampens the scent, yes there are other strong smells including decay and worse, and yes my sense of smell isn’t as sharp when I’m human.  But human and werewolves have very distinctly different smells, and I went right up to him to check.  At this range I could have provided an ID on the guy from his scent if you still needed one.  Trust me, if he’d been a werewolf, I would know.  He wasn’t.  Now can we get the hell out of the morgue before I get caught sniffing corpses?”

“So we still have a killer running around loose,” Nathan frowned as they headed through the quiet halls of the medical center back to his truck.  “With no idea who he is and no way to find him.”

“And only until the next full moon to do it,” Audrey added.  “If everyone thinks this is over, no one’s going to stay indoors next time no matter what warnings we issue.”

“I’ll try driving around again to see if I can pick up the scent.  If he thinks the heat is off he might get careless,” Duke offered.

“Would that help?” Audrey asked.  “You’d have to be pretty close to pick anything up, right?”

“Depends.  I can catch a scent from a good distance when the wind is right, but the scent has to be pretty fresh and fairly close before I can use it for tracking.  I’ve caught the scent plenty of times, but it’s always been so far away or so old that it dissipated before I could follow it.  It’s been strongest after the full moons, so I think that’s the only time he comes into town and the rest of the time he’s hiding out in some hunting shack deep in the woods or on a boat tucked away in some sheltered little cove.  Not just to hide from you, but from me, too.  He knows there’s another wolf in town and he doesn’t want me tracking him.”

Nathan thought of something and frowned.  “Could he track you?”

“It’d be tricky to do it in a way that wouldn’t give away his own scent, but it’s possible.  My scent is all over town, finding a fresh trail and following it to me would be the easy part.”

Audrey picked up on where the line of questioning was going.  “So it’s not necessarily true that whoever let you out – presumably this wolf – was someone in your life who knew you were a werewolf.  The killer could have simply picked up the scent of a fellow werewolf and tracked you to the Rouge by scent without any idea who you are.”

“What about a scent left on the Rouge itself?” Nathan asked.  “Whoever came aboard to let you out must have left a scent trail.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t have a chance to check for it until the next morning after you two left.  As a wolf I could follow a trail that old, but not as a human.  I tried to see if there was anything familiar about it, but the scent was strongest down by the panic room and that place is…well.  Fun fact, your sense of smell is strongly tied to your memory, that’s why you can smell apple pie and suddenly be six years old watching Grandma baking in her kitchen, or smell a particular perfume or cologne and start sobbing over some ex you never got over.  Point is, trying to do anything with scent down there is…yeah, that’s never gonna work.”

Nathan rested his hand on Duke’s shoulder for a moment, and Audrey reached out and took Duke’s hand, lacing their fingers together and rubbing her thumb over the back.  Duke looked almost startled at the show of support, then grateful.

Audrey changed the subject, allowing Duke to reclaim his hand as they left the center.  “So if this other wolf doesn’t know you personally, can you think of any reason why he would have let you out?  I mean a werewolf-related reason, like he wanted to fight you for this territory.”

Duke shook his head.  “Two lone wolves would never fight over territory, they’d just join and form a pack.”

“The drive to form a pack is that strong?  What if the other werewolf is a complete asshole?” Nathan asked.

Duke frowned.  “Lone werewolves sometimes form bad pack bonds with incompatible people in much the same way that lonely people get involved in ill-advised romantic relationships.   And much like a bad romantic relationship, most of the time a pack bond like that will just sputter along contentiously for a while and then fall apart.  Either one of wolves splits off to a new pack or they get completely sick of the other and tell them to go fuck themselves, even without any other pack to join.  But the longer a wolf’s been alone, the stronger their need for pack is, and that’s where packs can go pretty badly wrong.  A pack bond like that can essentially turn into an abusive relationship, with one wolf taking advantage of the other’s loneliness and need.  Lone wolves can get trapped in pack bonds like that, with their abusers systematically cutting them off from anyone else they might bond to in much the same way that a human domestic abuser isolates their victims from friends and family to ensure their reliance on the abuser.”

“Sounds like you know a lot about ending up in those bad bonds,” Nathan said as they climbed into the Bronco, the words carefully neutral.

Duke was quiet for a long moment, struggling with himself, before he said softly, “It’s why I came back to Haven.  I left in the first place so I could find myself a pack, and I met a lot of wolves in my travels.  Some of them were kind, wonderful people and I would have been really happy being part of their pack, and it just didn’t work out for one reason or another.  Others, not so much.  And the longer I was out there, the more times I had a pack fall apart on me, the lower my standards got.  And it got…it got pretty bad.”

Audrey leaned over and put an arm around him, silently supportive.

Duke gave her a weak smile.  “Anyhow, something happened that made me took a good hard look at things, and I decided I didn’t want to keep going that way.  So I came back.  There weren’t any other werewolves in Haven for me to bond with, and the whole town hated me so it wasn’t like I was going to manage to bond with any humans either.  I knew that once I came back I’d never leave again, Haven would grind me down to nothing.  But at least that would keep me here instead of running off to find another bad pack.  It was still better than where I’d have ended up if I’d stayed out there.”

“Jesus, Duke,” Nathan said quietly, taking his hand and squeezing it hard.

“It’s fine, Nate,” Duke said, even though he was gripping back fiercely.  “It was my choice, and I don’t regret it.  You know me, I’d rather wreck up against a shoal under my own power than let someone else captain my ship.”

“That was really brave of you,” Audrey said softly, stretching up to kiss his cheek.

Duke reddened, looking embarrassed, uncomfortable, and a touch gratified all at once.  “You’re sweet.  And now I think I’d like to be done with this topic, thanks.  Who wants lunch?”

**

Even after lunch, Nathan’s normally stoic expression was stormy as they headed back to the station.  Audrey looked over and rested a hand on his shoulder.  “You okay?  I know that was hard to hear.”

Nathan’s jaw clenched for a moment before he burst out, “What the hell did they do to him out there that _this_ was the better choice?  He hated Haven as much as Haven hated him.  One time when we got drunk as teenagers he said this place was killing him, that he’d end up dead if he couldn’t get out.  That shipwreck metaphor?  He meant that he chose to die by his own will rather than let someone else control him.  He probably figured he wouldn’t last five years back here before he took the Rouge out to sea and hopped the railing with a cement block strapped to his feet.”

Audrey rubbed Nathan’s shoulder.  “But he didn’t die, and he’s not going to.  It’s horrific that things got bad enough he had to make that call, but that determination to be the master of his own fate gave him the strength to get out.  That’s remarkable.  And now he has us, he has the Gull, he has good things in his life that give him reasons to live.”

“I just…I can’t understand why he’d ever put up with that.  He swore that once he got free he was never gonna take crap from anyone again.  He never accepted the way people treated him, he raged at it, he never held back calling anyone out for it.”

“But he couldn’t stop it,” Audrey pointed out gently.  “His parents abused him and there was nothing he could do about it.  The other authority figures in his life, his teachers and later the police, they persecuted him and there was nothing he could do about it.  That set up a pattern of thinking, a dangerous precedent that abuse is something to be endured, not resisted.  That however much he might hate it, he can’t fight it.”

Nathan looked sick at the realization that he had – however unwittingly – contributed to that.

“Compounding that you’ve got the messages he had driven into him his whole life about how he's worthless and what everyone else wants is more important than his own needs.  Remember how he left your blankets behind when he went into the safe room?”

Nathan nodded.  “He said he’d ruin them.  I was surprised he thought I’d still be petty enough to get mad about the ratty old blankets I keep in the truck, I thought he understood we were past that.  But what does that have to do with this?”

“That was never about you,” Audrey shook her head.  “Part of that was probably the poverty mindset that you need to make possessions last.  But more importantly, think about what that says about his sense of self-worth.  His comfort, his dignity, his needs and wants – they matter less than that pile of ratty old blankets.   _He_ matters less than those blankets.  It’s the same reason why the safe room is so bare.  There’s no reason he couldn’t have a pile of carpet scraps in there, even if he just tore it up every month.  But in his eyes he’s not worth even that.  And why shouldn’t he believe that when it’s exactly what everyone’s told him his whole life?”

Nathan was silent, struggling with that realization.  The knowledge that Duke considered a few worn-out blankets more important than he was…that felt like a fist to the gut.

Audrey gave his shoulder a squeeze as she continued her explanation.  “When you combine that shattered self-worth with the mindset of resignation and helplessness in the face of mistreatment, he was practically primed for abusive relationships.  Add to that his lack of connection to any friends or family and his financial desperation, then throw in the need for pack bonding, and I'm not sure you could do a better job of grooming someone for domestic abuse if you tried.  The fact that he was able to break out of that cycle is an astonishing testament to his inner strength.”

“Did he break out, though?” Nathan asked quietly.  “Or did he just trade one kind of abuse for another?”

“A worrying question,” Audrey admitted, “But things are changing for him.  “The police aren’t harassing him anymore, plus he has the Gull and it’s doing well enough that if he hasn’t already cut his criminal ties he could.  I think that in time people will realize that he’s turned his life around and his reputation will improve, especially now that he’s friends with the police chief.  In the meantime, he has us.”

“Maybe,” Nathan didn’t look convinced.

Audrey looked at the anger – and the guilt – in his expression, and said, “You know, after all this I’m really not in the mood to go back to making no progress on the case.  Can we take an hour or two at the firing range?  Shooting the hell out of some targets sounds pretty appealing right now.”

“Hell yes,” Nathan agreed, turning the truck around.

**

That Saturday Duke told his staff to consider him ‘on call’, and he and Nathan and Audrey gathered in the stateroom of the Rouge.  They spread the file out on the table and went over the case from the very beginning, this time with Duke’s insight into the supernatural aspect of things.  Everything was revisited and challenged - motive, means, opportunity, victim selection, cause of death.  Duke confirmed that all of the kills had certainly been made by a werewolf, that there was likely no motive beyond a desire to kill, that victim selection had almost definitely been a question of opportunity – not new information, but good to have confirmed, Nathan felt.

Duke was looking at the map where the locations and dates of the deaths had been marked, and frowning.

“Got something?” Audrey asked hopefully.

“There’s no pattern.”

“So, we’re looking at a berserk wolf rather than one still thinking like a human?” Nathan asked.

“Not necessarily.  Feral or fully intelligent, this shows intent to kill.  See, if this were a feral wolf who got out by accident, or who was let out, I’d expect to see all the kills clustered near wherever that wolf’s den was located.  Remember, a feral wolf who’s not a deliberate killer will have some sort of containment solution like my safe room.  That’s usually going to be in their home.  Might be somewhere else, but wherever it is it’ll be well guarded and not easily found.  Lone wolves don’t just hole up wherever they happen to find themselves come moonrise, that’s far too risky.  They go to the same proven safe place each month, so that’s where any unintended attacks from a feral wolf would originate.”

“So wouldn’t it have to be a wolf in full control then, rather than a werewolf who’s choosing to run loose while feral?” Audrey asked.

“Not necessarily.  He could be deliberately waiting for moonrise at a different place each month to ensure we wouldn’t be able to trace his feral kills back to his den.  But here’s what bothering me - my instinct says this is a wolf in full control.  A feral wolf could kill maybe two, _possibly_ three months in a row before getting caught.  But I don’t see how one could avoid detection this long, not with an entire town full of cops swarming the roads looking for it.  Feral werewolves are hyper-aggressive, they attack humans on sight.  They don’t avoid them, and even if they did they’re smarter than animals but not that smart.  Their instincts are in control, they’re operating on animal logic and not human intellect.  Even if a feral wolf wasn’t being aggressive – and I don’t know of any way that’s possible – they’d need human intelligence to avoid pursuit for this long.”

“You weren’t aggressive towards us,” Nathan pointed out.

“That’s different,” Duke said, looking uncomfortable.

Nathan gave him a long, considering look, remembering that night.  “What did you mean when you talked about calling you back?” he asked abruptly.

Duke grimaced.  He’d hoped Nathan would forget about that, even though he knew better.  “When a lone wolf turns feral at the full moon, it’s almost impossible for them to change back before the full moon is over.  A pack wolf is anchored to their humanity by the bonds with their packmates and can change back and forth at will, but a wolf without a pack has no such ties and is lost to the moon’s pull.  There’s a…a legend, a saying, whatever, that says that if someone who loves and trusts the wolf calls their name, it’ll bring them back.  But that’s impossible, because by definition lone wolves don’t have anyone like that.”  He didn’t even address the fact that it was _Nathan_ who had called his name and brought him back.  That just made the idea all the more ridiculous.  Hopefully Nathan had forgotten which of them had called to him that night.

Nathan’s face gave nothing away – he simply continued to give Duke that contemplative stare.

“Anyway,” Duke changed the subject, “if I’m right, if this is a wolf in full control, that has a couple of disturbing implications.”

“The pack bonds,” Audrey realized.   “If a werewolf’s ties to their pack is what keeps them sane at the full moon, then where is the rest of the pack?”

“Give the lady a prize,” Duke nodded.  “The werewolf scent I’ve been picking up hasn’t been strong enough to identify an individual but I can tell that it’s the same scent each time.  We do not – thank God – have an entire pack of murderous werewolves in town.  So either his pack is human, or his pack is staying far enough away that I can’t detect them.  This would, incidentally, explain why he hasn’t approached me in search of a bond.  But even if they’re not in town, I’d sure as hell like to know who’s sharing a pack bond with a murderer and where they are.  That’s not going to be any kind of healthy pack, whether he’s an abuser or his pack is like him.  And if it’s the latter then they’re not likely to take his death or capture well.”

“Great,” Nathan frowned.

“Yeah, we definitely need to keep that in mind if we can ever figure out who this is and make a plan for taking them down.  Setting that aside for the moment since we don’t know, can anyone in the class tell me what else is odd about a wolf in full control doing what we’ve seen so far?”

“You said a minute ago that wolves in control can change at will.  If they can be a wolf any time, why are the killings only ever on the full moon?” Nathan said.   “Why risk being that predictable?”

“Got it in one,” Duke agreed.

“Is there some sort of lunar religion among werewolves?” Audrey asked.  “We didn’t see signs that this was ritualistic, but if we didn’t know what to look for then we might have missed it.”

“There are a couple in fact, but none of them involve killing humans even in their darkest versions.  And if this were some kind of sacrifice to the moon or ritual celebration of full moon savagery, we’d see some sort of signs or pattern.  I still think this is just killing for the sake of killing.”

“I can think of one reason for only killing on the full moon,” Nathan said slowly.  “Duke, you said there was no werewolf-related reason you could think of for that other wolf letting you out last month, right?”

“Well, we didn’t actually get around to fully answering the question, the discussion got sidetracked, but you’re right.  No werewolf-specific reason I could name.”

Nathan nodded.  “But there is one mundane reason for doing so.  They’re trying to frame you.”

Duke’s jaw dropped.

“That would actually make a lot of sense,” Audrey mused.  “Commit the murders on the full moon so it looks like the work of a feral wolf – or a ‘classic’ werewolf to people not in the know.  Spread multiple kills over several months to make it look like deliberate, habitual murder rather than one-time accident.  Then let Duke out to hopefully get caught in the act.  Even if no one realizes the rampaging werewolf is Duke, once the villagers break out the pitchforks and torches, there’s no way he could safely stay – especially since something like that probably draws the attention of those hunters Duke mentioned.  At the very least Duke has to go on the run.  We just established that a feral killer wouldn’t avoid detection for very long, so since they didn’t succeed last full moon they might try again at the next one.”

Duke was understandably looking a bit panicked at the thought of being framed for serial murder.  Nathan saw it, and went over to rest a hand on his shoulder.  “We won’t let you take the fall for something you didn’t do,” he said firmly, hiding his guilt at the hypocrisy of the statement.  Duke needed reassurance right now, not apologies.

Audrey nodded, reaching across the table to take Duke’s hand in hers.  “We’ll catch the real killer, and put this to rest.”

Duke closed his eyes, resting one hand over Nathan’s while holding Audrey’s in the other.  He focused on the contact, the warmth and connection, the reassurance of them standing by him.  “Thank you, that means a lot.  Especially from you, Nathan.  Thanks for believing in me.”

Nathan’s hand tightened on his shoulder.  “Always knew you were no killer.”

Audrey smiled.  “He’s telling the truth.  On my very first day in town I told him you weren’t the killer and he said he never thought you were.”

“Good to know,” Duke sighed, unconsciously leaning against Nathan a little.

Nathan appeared to take no notice, his thumb rubbing absently over Duke’s shoulder.  “If this is true, it tells is a couple of things.  Firstly, the murderer doesn’t know Duke has an alibi for the full moon before last.”

“That’s plausible,” Audrey pointed out.  “There were three murders that night, none of them anywhere near the docks.  The rest of the force was out patrolling, he might not have realized Nathan set aside an officer to do nothing but watch the Rouge.”

“Not terribly surprising,” Duke had calmed enough to contribute to the conversation, reluctantly sitting up straight and letting go of Audrey’s hands, feeling Nathan’s hand lift off his shoulder.  “Even someone who knew about the vendetta might not realize Nathan would take it that far, especially when all manpower was needed for the patrols.  Not that I’m complaining, mind you, since it gives me a pretty healthy alibi.  Still kind of a dick move, though.  Just sayin’.”

Nathan didn’t object.  Duke wasn’t wrong, after all.  “You already had an alibi, though.  For the previous two months your employees vouched for you.”

Duke looked distinctly shifty.  “Can I say something off the record without it coming back to bite me or my staff in the ass?”

“They were lying for you?” Audrey smiled.

“…I didn’t say that.  My employees are honest people who would surely never lie to a police officer.  Lovely people, really.  Very, very loyal to me.”

Nathan rolled his eyes.  “We get it.  So for official purposes you have an alibi, but for werewolf-investigation purposes, your whereabouts those two nights are unconfirmed but you woke in the safe room.”

“So the murder also doesn’t know that Duke’s staff is loyal enough to alibi him at the risk of perjuring themselves.  Starting to sound like they’re not from around here,” Audrey mused.

“Which makes sense.  I’ve been the only werewolf in Haven for a long time, and this new wolf hasn’t been staying in town or I’d have scented him.”

“That’s good, if they’re not very familiar with the area maybe we can use that to our advantage,” Audrey mused.

“Why frame Duke, though?  Does this werewolf habitually go around finding lone wolves and then doing this in order to literally get away with murder?”

“He wouldn’t have to,” Duke pointed out.  “Most werewolf attacks are written off as fluke animal attacks.  As long as he kept moving and traveled far enough month to month, and as long as his kills were carefully done, he probably wouldn’t ever get caught.”

“Horrifying thought,” Audrey frowned.  That idea was something she wouldn’t shake easily, having seen the brutality of werewolf kills up close.

“We mentioned a hunter might try to start a war between wolves and humans. Since the killer is a wolf themselves, is there any possibility you could have a werewolf who is also a hunter?” Nathan asked.

Duke shook his head.  “Absolutely not.  For any supernatural being to go around hunting down their fellows would be seen as a horrific betrayal of the highest degree, an unthinkable taboo that would get every other supernatural within a hundred miles ganging up to mob and messily kill the traitor.  Even the races that normally attack one another on sight would work together to take down a kin-killer.  Not to say there aren’t reasons for supernaturals to kill one another that are considered perfectly legit, but being a hunter is absolutely not one of them.”

“All right, let’s assume the goal is to frame you specifically, Duke,” Nathan proposed.  “If even half the rumors about you are true then you must have no shortage of enemies.”

“Yes, but only the ones who are werewolves could be doing this, and that’s…” Duke made a face as he tried to figure out how to explain it.  “Supernaturals don’t involve human law enforcement to settle scores, as a rule.  All supernaturals understand the importance of secrecy.  Human beings hate and kill other human beings just for having different colors of skin or unfamiliar accents, can you imagine how they’d react to finding out werewolves were real?  It’d be a bloodbath.  Something like this would be…not as taboo as becoming a hunter, but a gross breach of etiquette comparable to showing up to peace talks armed to the teeth.”

“So, possible but not something that just anyone would do?” Nathan asked.

Duke nodded.  “It would take a special kind of asshole, someone with zero regard for anyone but themselves.”

Audrey frowned.  “I can think of one possibility.  But you’re not going to like it.”

“I’m being framed as a serial killer, I don’t like any part of this,” Duke pointed out.

“We know one kind of werewolf like that, callously self-centered and with a motive to make you look like a murderer.”

Something in Audrey’s voice made Duke tense.  She took his hands once more.  “Your abuser.”

Duke stomach dropped out from inside him, his dark eyes showing naked fear.

Nathan’s stomach twisted at that look of helpless terror, a look he never thought he’d see on his old friend’s face, that even the darkest days of Duke’s abusive childhood hadn’t ever been able to put there.  He shifted his chair close and put his arm around Duke’s shoulders, feeling rage rise in him at whoever had done this.  “They’re not getting anywhere near you.  They want to get at you, it’s gonna be over our dead bodies.”

Duke swallowed hard and looked at Nathan.  “That’s exactly what I’m afraid of,” he said softly.

**

By tacit agreement, the subject of the case was dropped for a while.  Audrey talked them into migrating onto the couch and putting on a movie, something light and silly that none of them paid much attention.  She and Nathan sat on either side of Duke, crowding close against him, the three of them covered in thick warm blankets.  Neither of them protested when Duke put an arm around their shoulders, needing them close, needing to feel their solid warmth and draw reassurance from it.  Audrey rested her head on his shoulder, cheerfully and shamelessly snuggling against his side.  Nathan fitted an arm around Duke’s back, shifting a little so the werewolf could more comfortably lean against him.

Nathan had never been a tactile person.  His mother had died when he was still quite young and the chief…well, he’d always done what he thought was best for Nathan but he’d never had an affectionate personality.  He’d wanted Nathan to grow up strong and self-reliant, and he’d had old-fashioned ideas about the relationship between father and son.  He’d praised Nathan, if he felt his son had earned it, but he’d never put his love into words, much less touch.  (Nathan had, since learning about his parentage, sometimes wondered darkly if that was because he’d had none to give.)

Consequently, outside of early childhood most of Nathan’s experience with touch had been fraternal teenage arm-punching and awkward romantic fumblings.  There has been nothing in his experience - or even his imagination - like this casual, comfortable, platonic contact, closeness for its own sake.  And yet the more time he spent with Duke, offering his touch as a source of comfort and a way to help Duke ground himself, the more Nathan realized that he enjoyed such contact.  There was something so comfortable and so right in this, in spending an afternoon piled together on the couch watching a movie.  Despite the looming threat, in this moment Nathan felt rare contentment.

By the time the end credits began to roll Nathan was sitting sideways on the couch, leaning back against the arm.  Duke and Audrey were both resting against his chest, Duke spooned around Audrey and cuddling her like a teddy bear, Nathan’s arms around them both.  Neither of them seemed much inclined to move, which brought an indulgent smile to Nathan’s face.  But after a moment Duke sighed and sat up.  “Back to the real world, I guess.”

“We don’t have to talk about the case if you want,” Nathan offered impulsively.  “At least not while you’re around.”

Duke gave him a tired smile.  “I appreciate the offer, but I don’t want to be in the dark, you know?  Knowing what’s coming might be the only thing that can save my ass.  Why don’t I make dinner and we can figure out our next steps.  It’ll go down easier with a big plate of comfort food.”

“You don’t have to go to the trouble if you don’t want,” Audrey offered.

“I want.  I like cooking, and I especially like cooking for people.  Besides, it’ll help to have something to do with myself, something normal and peaceful and not related to the topic at hand.”

Nathan nodded.  “Let us know if we can help.”

“Yeah, sure, wash up and I’ll find something for you to do.”

Once Audrey was chopping vegetables and Nathan peeling potatoes, Duke began pulling ingredients out of a pantry and said, far too casually, “I was thinking, if I’m the reason this psycho is here killing people, maybe it’s better if I clear out for a while.”

Nathan put down the potato and peeler.  “Absolutely not.”

“That’s just what they want,” Audrey agreed immediately.  “If we’re right about this motive, then the purpose is to drive you out of town where you’re cut off and isolated.”

“And vulnerable,” Nathan scowled.  “You’d be playing right into their hands.”

“Guys, it’s not like I don’t know that, okay?  I’m not stupid.  But nine people have died because of me so far, and who knows how many more he’s planning to kill.  If he’s doing it because he wants me back, then I’ll…” he swallowed hard, not looking them in the eye.  “Then it’ll be worth it.”

Nathan had to forcibly remind himself that getting furious would only make things worse.  He went over to Duke and pulled him into a crushing hug.  “You are not going back to him.  Not now, not ever.  You don’t have to sacrifice yourself walking back into that nightmare to stop his psychotic game.”  He put a hand on Duke’s chin, gently tilting up his downcast face so their eyes met.  “You are worth more than that, Duke.  You _matter_.”

Duke dropped his gaze, but not before Nathan saw how wet his eyes suddenly were, and Duke returned the hug fiercely.

Audrey wrapped her arms around both of them.  “No one’s dead because of you, Duke,” she told him firmly.  “They died because a murderous sociopath decided to end their lives.  That’s on him, not you.  Even if you’d never met that guy, who’s to say he wouldn’t be doing it to some other former victim right now?  Giving him what he wants is not an acceptable course of action.  And if you can’t believe that’s because we would _never_ be willing to sacrifice you, then consider this – do we really want to send the killer the message that this strategy works?  The next time someone got up the courage to leave him, he’d do the exact same thing all over again.”  Audrey stroked Duke’s hair, her voice gentling.  “It’s incredibly brave of you to be willing to do that, I can’t even imagine the courage that must take.  But you can’t, Duke.  We have to take a stand, we have to stop him.  If you can’t do this for yourself, do it for the people he’ll hurt if he gets away with this.  For the people like you, lost and alone , who’ll fall into his trap if we don’t stop him here and now.”

Duke rested his cheek against his hair, taking a moment to compose himself.  He took a deep breath and nodded.  “Yeah.  Yeah, okay.  If it’ll keep someone else from having to go through that, I can do this.”

Audrey stretched up to kiss his cheek.  “You’re so brave.  We’re proud of you,” she said warmly.

Duke’s eyes flicked to Nathan, disbelieving, but Nathan nodded and gently ruffled Duke’s hair.  “I’ve always admired that about you,” he said sincerely.  “No matter how the world tried to beat you down, you always came back up swinging.  I’m not surprised you broke free of this guy.  Not because I think it was easy, but because I know nothing on this earth could ever break you, not all the way.”

Duke looked absolutely stunned, and Nathan regretted not ever admitting it before.  He’d have to make more of a point to praise Duke in the future.

“Well.  Um.  Thanks,” Duke said awkwardly, as he let them go, clearly not having any idea how to handle praise or pride.  “So, uh, if that’s off the table then what’s our play?”

Audrey glanced at him as they went back to their respective tasks, then looked over at Nathan.  “Well, I’d say the first thing is to have someone with you 24-7.  One or both of us should stick with you whenever you’re not at the Gull or similarly public places.  This guy wants to get you alone, first order of business is to make sure that doesn’t happen.  I know that might feel intrusive but I think it’s important.”

“I don’t mind,” Duke said immediately.  "I’m not too proud to admit that the idea of any one of those people being here - especially to get me back – fucking terrifies me.  The company will be very welcome, believe me.”

“Wait, you mean there’s more than one?” Nathan asked incredulously.  “More than one werewolf you know who would literally kill to force you back to them?”

Duke hunched his shoulders defensively.  “I told you it got pretty bad.  There’s not a lot of them.  Just…a few.”

“When you feel up to it, anything you can tell us about them would be good to know,” Audrey said gently.  “I know it can’t be easy to think about them or to admit what they put you through, but it would help.”

Duke nodded.  “I don’t know if I could say it to your faces,” he admitted, “But I’ll write it down.  That way I can walk away if I need a break, come back to it when I’ve settled a bit.”

“That’s fine,” Nathan reassured him.  “We should get patrols keeping an eye on the Rouge and the Gull around the clock, too.  If the goal is to isolate you, to cut your ties, then they’re potential targets.”

“That’s a good point,” Audrey agreed.  “That doesn’t seem to be his strategy, but they’re some of your strongest ties to Haven.  We should cover our bases.”

Duke scowled.  “I’ll warn my employees to keep an eye out, set up a carpool so no one’s coming or going on their own, look over the schedule to make sure no one’s closing or opening alone, check the security systems.  If he tries to hurt my staff I’ll rip his guts out with my bare hands.”

“That’s the spirit,” Audrey smiled.

“I’ll step up my efforts to try to find him,” Duke offered.  “I’ve noticed that for some reason ever since the last full moon my senses seem to be getting sharper, so maybe I can pick up a scent now where I couldn’t before.  We need to get to him before the next full moon if at all possible.  This psycho killed nine innocent people – okay, eight innocent people and another murderer -  for no other reason than to get to me.  Even as a human they’re extremely dangerous, we do _not_ want to deal with them when the wolf is strongest and wildest.”

“Can we deal with them as a human?  We still don’t know much about what they can do,” Nathan frowned.

“When they’re human, you should be able to subdue then.  But bear in mind that they’ll still heal, so don’t bother shooting, that will not slow down or stop them.  They’ll have to be physically restrained.  And it’ll be tough, they’ll be strong and fast, but not unmanageable.  Might try setting your tasers to ‘fry’.  If he changes, though, all bets are off.  Get out before you get hurt, then call me to come track him, if the scent is fresh I’ll be able to.”

“Duly noted,” Nathan said, inwardly hoping he’d get a chance to use his taser on Duke’s abuser.

“And it should go without saying but if he does try to approach you, call us and get the hell out of there.  Don’t give him the chance to manipulate you,” Audrey said.

“Don’t worry, I don’t intend to let him without a mile of me,” Duke reassured her.

Nathan glanced at the calendar.  “We’ve got two and a half weeks to find him.”

“We have a plan,” Audrey said.  “We’ll get him.”

**

At 3 am, Duke’s cries woke Audrey and Nathan.  They leapt up and ran to his room, but there was no threat, just Duke thrashing in the covers crying out against god knew what horror.

Wary of approaching those flailing limbs, Audrey called out to him.  “Duke!  Wake up, it’s only a nightmare.”

At the sound of his name Duke’s eyes snapped open, wild and bright.  He stared at them blindly for a moment before sagging back against the mattress.  “Shit, I woke you,” he mumbled.

They went and sat on the bed beside him, and Audrey smoothed his rumpled hair.  “Don’t worry about it, anyone would have nightmares in your shoes.  We’re here, you’re safe.”

Duke sighed, his expression one of guilt and self-loathing.  “I thought I had a handle on them.  I can bring some blankets and pillows down to the safe room, that way I -  ”

He broke off as Audrey pulled back the blankets and climbed into bed with him.  She hugged the bewildered wolf close and smiled.  ”I think this is a much better solution.”

Nathan yawned and shrugged.  Now that he knew there wasn’t a threat, he mostly just wanted to go back to sleep.  He got into bed as well, lying close behind Duke and lazily draping an arm around them.  He sighed contentedly.  The couch was surprisingly comfortable but this was much better.

“You guys don’t have to,” Duke said softly.

Audrey hugged him tighter.  “We know.  We want to.”

“Less talking, more sleeping,” Nathan mumbled.

Duke smiled faintly.  The way they treated him was starting to leave him feeling conflicted.  Something inside him, something deep and old and instinctive, said that this was how it should be.  Pack took care of each other, pack was loving and supportive, this was right and good and natural.  But a lifetime of ugly lessons that he was trying very hard to fight told him that he didn’t deserve this, that he wasn’t worth it, that they’d never think of him as pack and they’d laugh if they knew he thought of them that way.

Duke closed his eyes and focused on the slow, deep rhythm of Nathan’s breath at his back, on the warmth and softness of Audrey in his arms, and let his thoughts – good and ill - drift away into sleep.

**

Nathan watched Audrey pace around the office restlessly.  She’d been antsy all morning but he’d thought maybe she would settle down once they got to work putting their ideas into action.  Apparently not.  “Parker, what’s eating you?”

“Nothing, it’s just…I can’t believe he was going to go down to the safe room!  Just so his nightmares wouldn’t wake us up, what kind of a solution is that?  I mean, I know why, but his nightmares must be awful enough without waking to that hellhole.  It’s almost like he was using it to punish himself, and that, no, that is _never_ gonna happen, not on my watch.”

“The safe room really bothers you, don’t it?” Nathan asked curiously.

“It really does,” Audrey agreed.  “And you know what bothers me the most, it’s not even the gouges in the wall or the complete lack of anything comfortable.  When I think of that room, I keep thinking of that little pile of his clothes by the door, folded and neatly stacked up.”

“That was odd, come to think of it.  Duke usually just tosses his clothes wherever, from what I can tell,” Nathan mused.

“It’s a delaying tactic,” Audrey said softly.  “At some point that evening he had to leave the Rouge’s living quarters, leave the warmth and comfort of his home, and go down there to that barren metal corridor, every step bringing him closer to his cell.  Then he had to undress, stripping away layers of his humanity, leaving himself freezing and exposed in every sense of the word.  And even though he was standing there naked and shivering, he still took those few precious extra seconds to fold his clothes, because he knew that when he was done there’d be nothing left but to go in there and lock that door and wait in the cold for the pain to start,” she was crying now, openly.  “And he did that every month, he lived that nightmare over and over and over because he’d rather walk through hell than hurt anyone else.  And I want to hunt down every last person who made him to go through that alone, and I want to kill them.”

Nathan wrapped her in his arms and cradled her against his chest, stroking her hair.  He hadn’t thought of it that way, but the scene Audrey had painted with her words was now horribly vivid in his mind.  “I know.  I’m with you there.  But what matters is that he won’t have to do that anymore.  He has us now.”

Audrey nodded against his chest and wiped her eyes.  “Let’s go for a coffee break.  One which involves stopping by the Gull to hug the stuffing out of Duke.”

“No arguments here,” Nathan chuckled and checked his watch.  “They’re not open for lunch yet, it’ll be just him and the staff.  Let’s go.”

Duke looked startled when he saw them walk through the door, his expression half pleased and half worried.  Worry won out when Audrey marched over and hugged him hard enough to make his ribs creak.  “Audrey?  Nate?  What’s wrong?”

“Nothing wrong.  We just got talking about your safe room.  Parker’s not a fan.”

“I know you think it’s necessary,” Audrey frowned.  “I’m even willing to concede that it was.  But I hate the thought of you in there.”

“Hey, it’s okay, Aud,” Duke reassured her, returning the embrace.  “Sure it’s not a barrel of laughs, but it’s worth it.  It keeps me from hurting anyone.  I’d spend the rest of my life in there if it was the only way to keep people safe from me.”

“Not helping,” Audrey growled.  “I know you would, because you’re like that.  But that just makes things worse.”

Hopelessly baffled, Duke patted Audrey’s back and looked to Nathan for help.

Nathan shrugged.  “I’ll call the station, let them know we’re gonna be here a while.”

**

Audrey had run bodyguard missions before, and they tended to be awkward, uncomfortable and tense.  Generally the asset chafed at having someone there around the clock and was restless, snappish, or both.  It had worried her – Duke needed protection, but if this soured things between the three of them then it would be a high price to pay.

But curiously, that didn’t happen.  It felt natural for Audrey and Nathan to spend their the evenings aboard the Rouge, to help Duke cook or have a late dinner of whatever he brought home from the Gull, to talk or watch movies or just relax in quiet companionship until everyone was yawning and ready for bed.  Duke continued to have nightmares when he slept alone, and after the first couple of nights Audrey and Nathan climbed into Duke’s large bed without even a pretense at anyone sleeping on the couch.  And that more than anything should have felt awkward and strange, but it didn’t.  It felt right, warm and comfortable and content.  The same feeling that came from seeing the stateroom scattered with Audrey’s books and Nathan’s DVDs, from seeing three toothbrushes in the bathroom and a second razor and makeup on the counter, from seeing their clothes in Duke’s hampers and drawers or scattered lazily around his bedroom floor.

They began to form habits around one another.  Each of them knew how the others took their coffee, and how much of it needed to be consumed before the drinker could be safely engaged in conversation.  Things were passed at the table without anyone having to ask.  Shower schedules changed to make sure no one ran out of hot water.  Chores were divvied up – or to be more accurate, Nathan and Audrey started doing chores while ignoring Duke’s protests that this was unnecessary.

It felt, Audrey thought, more like home than any place she’d ever actually been living.

**

The only downside she’d found so far was that during her occasional bouts of insomnia, she couldn’t toss and turn or get up and do something.  It was hard to lay still and quiet, but she did her best, not wanting to wake them.

It didn’t work.  “Can’t sleep?” Duke murmured softly.

“I get like this sometimes,” she whispered back.  “It’s nothing, just keyed up.  I’ll drop off in a bit.”

He shifted carefully, and then warm hands were on her shoulders, kneading away the tension.  She left out a deep breath, only at the last moment keeping it from being a groan of relief.

“Better?”  She could hear his smile.

“By miles.  You know you don’t have to, right?”

“You tell me that about so many things, you and Nate both.  And I appreciate that, I do.  It reminds me that I can choose whether to do this, and that, that’s important.  Having choices.  I do choose to, though.  You’ve done more for me than there will ever be words to say.  And I know you’d be the first person to tell me I don’t owe you anything, and I appreciate that too, but I want to give back.  If I can help you, if I can make you happy, I want to.  Because you believed in me, and that changed everything for me.  What Nate said about me coming up swinging every time the world beat me down – he was wrong.  I’d given up.  I’d stopped fighting, stopped trying to deny what everyone said I was.  I thought they were right, I thought I’d never be worth anything.  But you came along and you didn’t look at me like a criminal or scumbag.  My name meant nothing to you, my family’s reputation didn’t color how you thought of me.  You treated me like a person – like the person you knew I could be.  And when you did that, I remembered that person was somewhere in there, buried under everything that was dragging me down.  You made me want to be that person.  I wanted you to be right about me.”

Audrey turned and hugged him tightly.  “I was right to see the good in you, I was always right.  Never doubt that, Duke.”

Duke held her close, resting his cheek against her hair.  “I wish there could’ve been someone like you around when I was little.  I needed someone to believe in me so badly - someone who was willing to defend a kid like me, to stand up and say ‘no, this has to stop’.  Everyone knew my old man was beating on me, did you know that?  Anyone with half a brain could’ve figured it out, they can’t honestly have thought that all those bruises and shit were from schoolyard brawls.  But no one ever said or did anything.  They told themselves ‘that Crocker kid is trouble’,  or ‘that whole family is bad news’.  Maybe they figured I was bullying some kid who fought back, maybe they thought I was getting bullied because of my smart mouth.  Whatever justification they made up so they could feel better about turning a blind eye, it all boiled down to me deserving those bruises.  Hell, my brother Wade once tried to tell a nurse outright that it was my old man that broke my arm, and she called him a liar. You can’t even imagine what a difference it would have made to hear an adult - someone, anyone, just _one person_ \- say ‘You don’t deserve this.  This isn’t your fault.  This isn’t right, how they’re treating you.’  ‘Cause you know, when all you hear your whole life is that it’s on you, that sinks in.  And no matter how much you tell yourself that’s bullshit, you can’t ever be sure.  You always wonder, what if it _is_ just you?”

Duke thought Nathan was still asleep – he wouldn’t have said any of it otherwise, but Nathan always slept like a rock – so he startled when Nathan’s arms slid around him from behind.

“I should have been that person,” Nathan said quietly, his voice still rough with sleep.    “I’m sorry I never understood.  More than anyone else, I should have been the one to have your back.  You were drowning and there wasn't a single damn person in this town willing to throw you a line.  At least they saw it, I didn't even know.  I failed you worse than they ever did.”

“That’s bullshit, Nate.  They knew, and refused to do anything.  You never would have stood for that crap.  You’ve have told off my old man and then told off everyone who’d turned their back on me.  You can’t seriously think ignorance is worse than deliberate callousness.”

“It doesn’t matter what I would have done.  What matters is what I actually did.  What use is it that I would have helped when that never happened?”

“You did help, Nate.  You were my friend.  Don’t ever think that didn’t matter to me.”

“It’s not the same as taking action.”

Duke sighed and squirmed out of Nathan’s embrace, giving his hand a squeeze to reassure Nathan that he wasn’t just trying to get away.  He went over to a cabinet built into the wall and took out an ancient teddy bear, threadbare and faded and obviously patched, loved to within an inch of its life.  He carried it carefully over to Nathan.  “Remember this guy?”

Nathan sat up, looking incredulous.  “Is that…Fuzzy Wuzzy?”

“One and the same,” Duke nodded, then addressed Audrey’s obvious curiosity.  “This lil’ guy used to be Nate’s.  When we were…I dunno, six or seven, I was sleeping over at his place.  He woke up in the middle of the night and found me crying, so he gave me his favorite bear, said it’d keep me safe and help me feel better when I was sad.  Told me to take it home the next morning, said I needed it more than him.”

“And you kept him.  All this time,” Nathan said softly.

“All this time,” Duke nodded.  “Even when I got way too old to believe that a stuffed bear could actually help me in any way, I'd still go pull him out of his hiding place and hold him and it _did_ help, because that bear meant that someone out there cared, there was someone who tried to help when I was down, someone who wanted me to be happy.  Someone who thought I _deserved_ to be happy.  Even after I left Haven, even after I came back, even after things got bad between us, I’d look at that old bear and remember that someone had cared.  You didn’t just throw me a lifeline, Nate, you _were_ that line.  Maybe you didn’t stop my family from treating me like crap, maybe you didn’t stop everyone thinking I was no good – and make no mistake, those were things you _couldn’t_ have changed, no more than I could – but you showed me that things didn’t have to be that way.  When you and I were hanging out I was safe, I was free, I was your friend and not just some delinquent.  I was someone worth being with.  Our friendship meant everything to me, some days it was all that kept me going.  You were the only good thing in my life.  You gave me _hope_ , Nate.  As bad as it ever got, I wouldn't have made it at all if not for you.”

Nathan very gently - almost reverently – set the battered old teddy bear on the nightstand, then turned back to Duke and gave him a hug so fiercely tight that anyone but a werewolf would have been hurt.  He buried his face in Duke’s hair, hiding tears, and murmured hoarsely that he’d never again let Duke doubt that there was someone who cared, or how worthy of that he was.

**

As the days ticked past, their hope of finding the killer before the full moon began to fade.  A week beforehand, they sat down together to work out a strategy for that night.

“Duke, you said you were going to refit the safe room door, is that done?”

Duke nodded.  “Key code is needed for both entry and exit now, and the code is a completely random sequence that is only in my head.  He can destroy the keypad if he likes but that won’t unlock it, and even a werewolf’s not getting through that door when it’s locked.  He can’t set me loose again.  And before you ask, yes I can still get out even if he destroys the outer keypad.”

“Good.  If we know he’ll try, we should wait for him here.  We can hide on the deck and confront him when he comes aboard,” Nathan suggested.

Duke shook his head.  “If you’re here, he won’t show.  Werewolves have noses like bloodhounds and eyes and ears to match.  If you’re here, he’ll know it.  Even if you were downwind and completely out of sight, he’d hear your heartbeat.”

“Are we sure he’d avoid us and not just attack?” Nathan frowned.

“He’s stayed away from police so far, and if his plan is to frame Duke then he himself has to stay hidden,” Audrey pointed out.  “I think Duke’s right, I think if there’s anyone on board then he won’t show.  How far away would we have to be before he wouldn’t know we’re here?”

Duke looked thoughtful.  “The harbormaster’s office is far enough away and downwind of here.  It has a good view of this pier, and it’s close enough that if you spot him arriving, you can get here by the time he’s given up on getting me out and goes to leave.  Beattie will let you use the office for a stakeout, she’s cool that way.”

Nathan frowned.  “What if he doesn’t come here first?  If this is another attempt to frame Duke, he’s going to need a fresh body.  He can’t just let Duke out and hope for the best, especially after he was out last month and, as far as we know, didn’t kill anyone.”

“I could have killed Hansen.  We don’t know I didn’t.”

“You didn’t have any blood on you when we found you,” Nathan argued.

“That implies my innocence but hardly proves it,” Duke shrugged.  “We’ll probably never really know.  I can’t say I’m happy, but I can live with it.  If I was gonna end up killing anyone, taking out a serial killer is kind of the best-case scenario.”

“Boys, on task,” Audrey said firmly.  “Last month everyone was scared and spent the full moon hiding inside their homes,” Audrey said.  “Everyone feels safe now, and it’s still getting dark early enough that there’ll be plenty of people out on the streets come nightfall.  He wouldn’t need to worry about making sure there’s a victim.  And speaking of victims, specifically not becoming two more, we need a plan for what we’re we going to do when he shows up.  Have we come up with anything that could take him down?”

Duke looked indecisive, and guilty.  Before he could say anything, Nathan spoke up.  “Had some ideas on that, actually.  You look for your enemy’s weak point.   Werewolf bodies might or might not have any vulnerabilities but we can use its heightened senses against it.  Even if we can’t hurt it, maybe we can confuse and blind it.  Flashbang grenades, pepper spray, that sort of thing.”

Duke looked intrigued.  “In a way, that might actually be a better idea than the traditional weaponry.  If you pull out something a hunter would use, he’ll know to be wary.  But human weaponry that can actually affect him?  He’ll never see that coming.  You should save those for defensive measures, though.  You might even be able to fend him off, even drive him into a full retreat, but that’s not the same as taking him down.”

“Is taking him down even possible? Nathan said doubtfully.  “Nothing can hurt him and he’s too strong for any restraints.”

“There is one way,” Duke said.  “When the full moon sets at dawn and he changes back to human, he won’t be able to change into a wolf again right away.  If you can get to him then, you can restrain him like you would an ordinary human.  By then I won’t need the safe room, so you can bring him back here and toss him in there until we can decide what to do with him.”

“Like lock him in a furnace and see what werewolf healing does for that,” Nathan muttered.

“What kind of window are we looking at?” Audrey asked, more pragmatically.

“At least a few hours after the change.  Possibly until mid-day.”

“So we’re making this a surveil-and-tail?” Nathan asked.  “Wait until he shows up and then follow him back to the hideout and wait for dawn?”

“At the distance you’d need to follow him so he wouldn’t notice you, it’d be too easy to lose him.  Plus if he goes back to his pack, you’ll have them to contend with,” Duke frowned.  “Besides, what if he goes off to kill someone?”

“You’re saying we keep him here?” Nathan said dubiously.  “The only way we could fight a werewolf until dawn is if he shows up five minutes before – and maybe not even then.”

“So we don’t fight.  We draw him off instead,” Audrey proposed.  “Make him chase us.  I show myself and tell him his murder spree is over.  He won’t want to leave any witnesses, especially those who could exonerate Duke.  When we spot him boarding the Rouge, I go out to wait for him, you pull up behind me in the Bronco and get ready to race out of there.  We can plan a route around town that’ll let us keep our speed up, just enough to keep him hot on our tails without giving up.”

“That…might work,” Duke said slowly.  “You’d have to be careful, though.  Werewolves can overtake a moving car, and can pursue one all night without tiring.  Plus he might chase you less quickly than he can actually run, to get you off guard.  Don’t underestimate him.”

“Pretty sure no one here is doing that,” Nathan reassured him.

“Speaking of underestimating,” Audrey added, “Hopefully this plan won’t involve any fighting, but if it comes to that then we have to assume that any weapon we can think of may not work, at least until we actually see it have an effect.  For example, don’t wait until he’s charging right at you to use the pepper spray, have a backup plan for in case it has no effect.”

“Noted,” Nathan nodded.  “We also need to decide what we’re going to do about his pack.”

“There are two possibilities there,” Duke said.  “One, his pack is abused.  This is the most likely scenario, given the probable culprit.  That’s no problem, once he’s dead or captured then we can go find them and help them.”  Duke paused, a little defiant as he waited to see if they’d object to him wanting to help the abused wolves.  But they nodded, so he continued.  “Two, his pack is pro-murder.  I initially said they could be human and here in town, but I thought about it more and I don’t think that’s the case.  They’d carry enough of his scent that I’d have picked up on it, especially this last couple of weeks.   So that means that his pack, human or wolf, is staying outside of town.”

“Why would they, though?” Audrey mused.  “If they support his murdering, why would they stay away while letting him have all the fun?”

“A good point, and another one in favor of the abused pack theory,” Duke agreed.  “And frankly that’s just more likely than a pack being okay with one of their number going out and committing murder anyhow.”

“I think you’re probably right, but even if they are murderous they’re still not in town, so chances are even in a worst case scenario we’d have a breather before they could get here.  That’s good, we can worry about that after the full moon’s over,” Audrey nodded. “All right, I think we have a workable plan.”

“I wish I could be there,” Duke said unhappily.  “Honestly I hope he doesn’t show.  I’d rather we miss the chance and see you both come home safe.”

“I know,” Audrey stroked his hair.  “You know why we can’t just stay away, and you know we can’t promise too much.  But we can both promise that we’ll do everything in our power to come home to you.”

“We can, and we do,” Nathan agreed, resting a hand on his shoulder.

Duke nodded.   “Then may the moon shine on your path.”

**

The stakeout was long and tense.  Both Audrey and Nathan watched the wide-open pier vigilantly, the only thought beside their watch being to worry whether Duke was all right.  It was deep into the small hours of morning when they finally spotted movement.

The huge wolf approached cautiously, ears pricked, nose sniffing the air, head turning from side to side.  Even at this distance, they held their breath when it looked in their direction.

But Duke had been right – they were far enough away that it didn’t realize they were there.  It trotted down the pier and up the gangplank onto the Rouge.  They gave it another few seconds to make sure it had headed inside before running out to the Bronco.

Nathan pulled up at the end of the pier, leaving the truck in gear for an immediate getaway.  Audrey opened her window and leaned out, waiting.

They didn’t have long to wait.

The wolf was already wary as it came off of the Rouge, having doubtlessly heard the rumble of the Bronco’s engine.  It was enormous, the size of a small pony, and when it bared its teeth the fangs gleamed terribly in the moonlight.

“Your little game is over,” Audrey told it.  “We know what you’re trying to do.  But we know Duke is innocent, and we can prove it.”

The wolf’s ears went back, and it snarled, a low and deadly sound.

“Duke will never go with you,” Audrey taunted.  “We're his pack and he doesn't need you anymore, he never will again.  You already knew, didn’t you?  Our scent must have been all over in there.  In his den.  In his _bed_.”

The wolf sprang.

The Bronco peeled out with a scream of tires and a smoking streak of rubber, the furious wolf racing behind.

**

After locking himself in, Duke paced the safe room restlessly.  He hated the thought of Nathan and Audrey confronting a murderous werewolf alone, but he knew that he had to stay put.  Having a second one on the loose wouldn’t help anything.

The rising moon brought the Change as it always did, but to his surprise this time things were different.  His thoughts remained on Nathan and Audrey – remained human, albeit filtered through the exaggerated senses and wild instincts of the wolf.  He still paced, still worried for them.  Even with his much keener senses, the walls of the safe room were too thick to allow any hint of scent or sound to reach him.  As the hours dragged on his unease grew.  It seemed like he’d retained enough control to be out there without hurting anyone, maybe even to change back.  But he didn’t dare even try.

The night was waning when something, some scent or sound too subtle to register in his human consciousness, set his instincts screaming.  His pack was in danger, he had to protect Nathan and Audrey.  He spun around and reared up, trying to use clumsy wolf paws to punch in his key code.  It buzzed at his failure and he snarled.  Goddamnit, they needed him!  And right now they needed Duke, not the wolf.

Pain blazed through him, unexpected and shattering, as his body responded to his need.  The Change was worse because of his haste, but he pushed the pain aside and reached up with human hands to open the door.

A few minutes later a huge wolf raced up the dock, following the instincts that drew him toward his threatened pack, a howl splitting the night as he recognized the scent of the wolf that menaced them.

**

When the pursuing wolf put on a sudden burst of speed and leapt, all Nathan could think was that he _knew_ the plan had been going too smoothly.

The Bronco shuddered and slid sideways as the wolf landed on its roof.  Nathan cursed and spun the truck out, trying to knock it off.  Audrey pulled her sidearm and shot through the roof.  It wouldn’t seriously injure the wolf but it would still hurt, hopefully enough to drive it away.

Instead the heavy claws punctured the metal as it gripped tighter.  Terrifying fangs began ripping the roof open, peeling it back like a sardine can.  Nathan braked hard, aiming to send it flying off, but the claws were too deeply embedded in the frame, the powerful muscles behind them too strong.  The move only threw the wolf off balance, but it was long enough for them to stop and scramble out, putting a little space between them and the wolf coming through the roof of the truck.

It leapt down from the ruined truck and stalked toward them, massive and terrible.  Duke’s wolf had been far more intelligent than any natural one, but still wild, still feral.  This wolf was looking at them with fully human intelligence – and a bloodlust that chilled Nathan to the bone.  He glanced at Audrey and she nodded, and they both readied the weapons that suddenly felt ludicrously inadequate against what faced them.

The wolf crouched and sprang – only to check itself in midair as Duke stepped into the pool of lit pavement between them, naked but unafraid.  “Wade.  You need to stop.  I won’t let you do this.”

The other wolf stretched upward, the hideous transformation swift and terrible.  Wade Crocker, long thought gone from Haven, stood in the moonlight with sweat-beaded bare skin and eyes bright with madness.  “Baby brother.  You got out on your own.  I’m impressed.”

“I won’t let you kill anyone else, Wade.  It’s hard for you, I know.  I can’t imagine what it’s costing you to keep control right now, without a bond to anchor you.  But you don’t have to do this.  You don’t have to be alone.  We were pack, we still can be.  We can help each other.”

“I don’t need help,” Wade smiled, joyous and awful.  “You just don’t understand, yet.  We’re predators, Duke.  We hunt, we kill.  Humans are prey, not pack.  That’s why I let you out.  You need to taste blood.  You need to understand.  Once you make your first kill, you will.  You’ll come with me and we’ll be pack again, brother.”

Duke shivered, the offer pulling at everything he was.  Nathan saw it, and his stomach turned.  “Duke.  You have a pack.  You have us.  You’re not alone anymore.”

“We’re here for you, Duke,” Audrey agreed.  “You don’t have to go with him.  If you think you can help him, we’ll back your plan.  We won’t make you choose.”

Duke glanced backward briefly, his expression grateful and his stance steadying.

“I’ve never killed an FBI agent before,” Wade said casually.  “I wonder if you’ll put up a worthwhile fight.  I know the cop won’t, I’ve dealt with his kind.”

Duke growled, low in his throat, a fearsome sound.  “I won’t let you touch one hair on their heads.”

“They were dead from the moment you cared about them, Duke.  That’s your fault, as surely as if you tore their throats out yourself,” Wade told him, making Duke flinch.  “Once I’ve killed them, everyone will think you’ve done it.  There won’t be anything keeping you here, and every reason for you to flee.  I’ve planned this from the moment I came into town.  You were always going to come with me.  That’s what you _want._ ”

“Wade, don’t make me do this,” Duke pleaded, his voice cracking.  “I don’t want to hurt you.  You’re my pack, my family, my _brother_.  Please, just let me help you, you can come back from this.  We could be a real family, like we never got a chance to when we were kids.”

“We will be, little brother,” Wade said confidently, fur beginning to sprout over his skin.  “Once those two are dead.”

Duke began to shift as well, needing the wolf, needing strength and speed and fangs.  Two wolves got to their feet, facing off in silence.  No growling, no bristling fur, just cold readiness and deadly intent.

Wade didn’t even try to attack Duke, heading straight for Nathan and Audrey.  Duke leapt between them, a dull thud as powerful bodies collided.  Teeth were bared, blood flew, and a disturbingly human sound of pain broke the air.

Audrey waited for the gash on Duke’s shoulder to seal back up, for the flesh to knit and the flow of blood to trickle to nothing.  But nothing was happening, she realized with sinking dismay.  “Nate, he’s not healing!”

“I see it.  Must be a werewolf thing,” Nathan said, heartsick as he held his gun steady and waited for an clear shot.  Maybe he couldn’t hurt Wade, but hopefully he could at least distract him.

From the outset, it was clear that Duke was at a disadvantage.  He was doing his best not to hurt his brother, but Wade had no compunctions about injuring him.  Duke lost ground, getting to his feet with a new wound each time he went down.  But he kept getting up, kept putting himself between his brother and the humans as Nathan and Audrey backed up the road to give him more ground.

Wade was clearly frustrated, his growl more irritable than menacing, shaking his head and snapping at Duke.  He didn’t seem to want to kill Duke, apparently that wasn’t part of his plan.  He glared at his stubborn little brother facing him, shaky but determined, blood dripping from a dozen wounds.  Duke would take a dozen more and still drag himself to his feet to protect them, even if it meant bleeding out.  Wade seemed to realize this, and with a snort of disgust he turned to leave.

Duke leapt after him, clamping his jaws in the scruff of Wade’s neck, knowing he had to keep him there.  If Wade vanished back to wherever he was hiding, he’d just keep coming at Audrey and Nathan - and one of these days he’d succeed.  He had to hold him, no matter what.

Wade snarled viciously, turning on his brother.  Dawn was close now, and he must have been well aware of his approaching vulnerability.  He’d been inflicting only minor wounds so far, but now he fought with true desperation.

Duke gave a muffled yelp of pain as powerful jaws closed on his foreleg, snapping it.  Pain and exhaustion were taking their toll and he could feel the night waning, but he hung on like grim death as his brother bit and clawed desperately.

When Duke still didn’t let go, Wade gathered his strength to rip himself free of Duke’s jaws.  But he must not have counted on how deeply those deadly teeth had sunk in.  As Wade tore loose, Duke’s fangs ripped sideways through the hide and hair and flesh of his brother’s neck, severing the artery.

Wade didn’t get ten feet before he fell and lay still.  Duke didn’t even take the time to change back, dragging himself over to his fallen brother, crying in an all too human voice.

Audrey and Nathan hurried over to him, checking his wounds.  “We have to get him to a hospital,” Audrey blurted.

“A hospital can’t help unless he changes back, and for all we know changing when he’s that badly hurt would kill him.” Nathan shook his head, pulling off his shirt and tearing it into strips for makeshift bandages.  “It’ll have to be a vet.  We can say he’s some designer breed made to mimic direwolves or something.”

Audrey stroked Duke’s blood-matted head, her heart breaking at his agonized look.  “We’re going to get you help, Duke, hang on.”

“I’ll take care of Wade,” Nathan told Duke, wrapping the wounds as best he could.  “I’ll bring him back to the Rouge and lay him out properly in the hold until you decide how you want to send him to rest, all right?”

Duke weakly nuzzled his arm, whimpering softly.

Between them Nathan and Audrey got both wolves into the Bronco.  Nathan dropped Audrey and Duke off at the vet before heading to the Rouge.  He was sorely tempted to just dump the dead wolf in the harbor and let the fish have him – he deserved far worse than that for hurting Duke.  But Duke wouldn’t want that, so Nathan kept his word and then hurried back to the vet.

Audrey was pacing in the waiting room.  “They’re patching him up.  They won’t let me stay with him.”

Nathan scowled, then flinched as an awful howl of pain came from the back.  “Aren’t they using anesthetic?” he demanded, looking ready to storm back there and give the vet an earful.

“It wasn’t working.  The vet didn’t want to give him more because he was afraid of hurting Duke, but it didn’t seem to do anything at all.”

Nathan growled.  “I should have dumped that bastard in the harbor and let the crabs pick his bones.”

Audrey took his hand and squeezed it.  “I know.  I probably would have, in your shoes.”

There was silence from the back – either the vet was giving Duke a rest, or the wolf had mercifully lost consciousness.

“Nate, it’s almost dawn,” Audrey said softly.  “If he changes back – that was bad enough when he was in good shape.  His whole body rearranges, his wounds could tear open again, it could kill him.”

“I know,” Nathan reached out and drew her into a hug.  “I don’t know what will happen.  Might be that he won’t change at all, he could be stuck like that until he’s healed for all we know.”

“We can’t count on that,” Audrey protested.

“Maybe I can ask Gloria to come help us keep an eye on him.  She was a combat medic in Vietnam, she still knows emergency medicine.  She can handle this as well as anyone.”

“Probably won’t bat an eye, either – I’ve never met anyone so unflappable,” Audrey said, relieved.

“Knows how to keep her mouth shut, too,” Nathan nodded.  “I’ll give her a call.  Duke might not thank us for letting someone else in on his secret, but the first aid we know won’t be enough to save him if this goes south.”

Audrey nodded.  “If he’s conscious afterward then we can ask him.  If not…we’ll just have to hope he can forgive us.”

**

Duke was a sorry sight when he got done in surgery.  Bare patches were shaved into his fur all over where wounds had been stitched, his leg was in a cast, and to add insult to injury the vet had put a plastic cone around his neck.  If Nathan hadn’t been so worried, he’d have laughed.

The vet objected strongly to them taking Duke home, but in the end he gave them a long list of instructions and a mountain of supplies.  They carried him out to the car as carefully as they could.  The werewolf was awake but only just, dazed with agony and possibly whatever drugs had been pumped into him.  He just blinked at Nathan when he asked permission to call Gloria, making no protest but neither giving any sign of consent.

Nathan hoped it was good enough.  Gloria gave him an earful for waking her at this hour, but agreed to head down to the Rouge right away, even without explanation beyond ‘Duke’s hurt’ and the request to come prepared for anything.

“That’s a relief,” Audrey said, feeling a little better as they neared the docks.

Nathan nodded.  “First thing, we’ll need to get that cast off.  I don’t want to find out whether he or it will give way first if that foreleg turns into a human arm all of a sudden.”

“Hopefully Gloria will have the right tool for the job, but if not I’m sure there’s something in the Rouge we can use.  And we should take that ridiculous collar off, too.  Like he needed the indignity on top of everything.”

“Think that’s probably the least of his worries,” Nathan said unhappily.

Audrey  nodded.  “Even if it weren’t for his physical wounds, he had to do a terrible thing tonight,” she said softly.  “It didn’t look like he meant to, I think he was just trying to keep Wade from getting away, but I doubt he’ll feel any less guilty over it.”

“Especially with what Wade meant to him,” Nathan agreed.

Audrey nodded.  “Having to kill a brother in self-defense would be hard even for a human, but Duke…god, when Wade offered to bring him along and be his pack, I could _feel_ how badly Duke wanted that.  I really think that if he hadn’t had us, he might not have been able to say no.”

Nathan’s face hardened.  “He might be Duke’s brother and his former pack, but I’m glad he’s dead.  Trying to pull Duke into that, make him into a murderer – if he wasn’t dead already I’d kill him myself.  Werewolf or not.”

“I’d help,” Audrey said heartily.

**

“So mainly, we’re worried about what will happen when he changes back to human,” Audrey wrapped up her explanation to the medical examiner.  “Changing is as painful as you’d think it would be, with everything reshaping dramatically.  He basically breaks apart and reforms.  He should heal from those injuries on his own,” Audrey prayed that was still true despite his wounds, if he couldn’t heal at all in this state…she remembered Duke saying that the supernatural healing was the only way werewolves survived the change.  “We’re more worried about what changing is going to do to the injuries he already has.  Stitches ripping out, additional blood loss, broken bones misaligning, that sort of thing.”

“But we don’t really know,” Nathan said, frustrated.  “For all we know changing back could heal everything on its own.  Or he might not change at all, if being injured prevents it.  We don’t know how any of this works.”

“Well, you said to come prepared for anything, so I’m loaded for bear.  Guess we’ll see what happens when dawn comes,” Gloria said matter-of-factly.

“You’re taking this well,” Nathan observed.

“You know, it’s a funny thing.  The ME before me used to say stuff every now and then that hinted there were more things in heaven and earth than were dreamt of in man’s philosophy and all that.  I used to give her a hard time about believing in woo-woo bullshit, but Eleanor Carr was the most sensible, practical, down to earth soul I’ve ever met.  All this being real frankly makes more sense than someone like her buying in to hippie spirit nonsense or scary stories for kids.  In point of fact, she just might know what to do with a wounded werewolf.”

She pulled out her phone and dialed a number.  A few rings later, she said.  “Eleanor, it’s Gloria.  Sorry to wake you at this hour, but I need a consult.  Yeah, yeah, I know, margaritas are on me.  But it’s a doozy, you’ll like it.  You know all that woo-woo bullshit I gave you hell for?  I’ve got a facefull of it now.  Yeah, really.  Werewolves.  One got tore up real bad.  No, not these wounds, he’s not healing.”  She looked towards Nathan and Audrey.  “How’d he get hurt?”

“Fight with another werewolf,” Nathan told her.

Gloria relayed that information.  “Huh, that’s why.  Okay, got it.  Go figure.  Yeah, no, it doesn’t look life-threatening so far, they had a vet treat him.  I know, right?  God know what the guy thought, but that’s not my problem.  Yeah, it is, and he’s still a wolf at the moment, but I have no idea what’ll happen come dawn.”  She listened intently for a few minutes, then said.  “All right, will do.  I’ll let you know how it turns out.  I owe you one.”

She hung up and turned to Nathan and Audrey.  “Well, his injuries won’t stop him from shifting.  He’ll heal from the shift itself but the wounds the other wolf gave him will stick with him.  And that’s gonna get ugly, but all we can do is to triage things as they go wrong.  The vet did a good job, and that will help a lot.  That care and the chance to rest until dawn will give him an advantage, and we’ll do the best we can for him.  Now, I’m gonna walk you two through my supplies and equipment and explain what we’re likely to be doing so that when I give you instructions, you’ll know what I mean.  Once the shit hits the fan, I need you two to do what I say when I say it, no delay, no questions.  In emergency medicine, seconds matter.  Understood?”

“Absolutely,” Audrey nodded.

“All right, then let’s get to it.”

As the minutes ticked on towards dawn, the mood grew grimmer.  Gloria went around the laid out medical supplies again, double-checking that everything was ready.  Nathan and Audrey sat with Duke, murmuring reassurance and support, resting their hands on his fur, letting him know he wasn’t alone.

The last faint image of the moon vanished as the first rays of dawn broke over the horizon.

The wolf began to scream.

Afterwards both Nathan and Audrey were glad of the frantic burst of activity that followed as the violent transformation tore open wounds afresh, rearranged broken bones, warped bruised and bleeding flesh.  Gloria’s hands flew to keep up, barking orders at Nathan and Audrey like a battlefield commander.  They obeyed with all the speed and skill in them, working desperately to keep their werewolf alive.

It felt like hours later by the time they could relax enough for a deep breath, though only minutes had passed.  Duke lay unconscious on the bed, human for another month.  He’d passed out fairly early on, and both Nathan and Audrey were deeply grateful for that.

He looked worse now for being human, the bruises unhidden by thick fur and the wounds standing out starkly.  He was sickly pale beneath his tan, an IV in one arm as Gloria wearily wrapped plastered cast bandages around the other.

“Thank you, Gloria,” Audrey said quietly.   “You probably saved his life.”

“Once a medic, always a medic.  Hell of a thing, though,” she shook her head.  “Wish painkillers would’ve worked.  You can’t have everything, I guess, but whoever’s rolling the dice upstairs could stand to cut the kid a break.  Known him his whole life and he always seems to end up with the short end of the stick.”

Nathan gave her a tired, worried nod.  “No arguments here.”

“Best thing for him for now is rest.  I’ve written out some instructions, call me if you need anything.”

“Will you be all right getting home?” Audrey asked.

Gloria waved her off with a dismissive noise.  “I’m not decrepit yet, don’t treat me like I am.  I can get myself home, you two stay with him.  He needs you more than I ever will.”

Looking down at the wounded werewolf, they really couldn’t argue that.

**

Audrey and Nathan decided to sleep in shifts to keep an eye on Duke, switching off every few hours.  She volunteered to take first shift, and Nathan gingerly settled into bed beside Duke, arranging himself to maximize comforting contact without aggravating any of the injuries.  He fell asleep to Audrey’s soft-sung lullabies, a way for Duke to hopefully know, even unconscious, that he wasn’t alone.

By the time she gently shook him awake a few hours later she looked pretty ragged, having been awake now for more than 24 hours.  Nathan drew the blanket up over her and decided to give her an extra shift of sleep.  He could always nap later.  She was asleep almost instantly, as carefully cuddled up to Duke as Nathan had been earlier.

Nathan checked Duke’s vitals and bandages as best he could without disturbing him.  Audrey had already called the station to check in and let them know the two of them wouldn’t be in, but now it was late enough in the morning for Nathan to call the Gull and let them know that Duke would be out for a few days.  That done, he sat beside the bed holding Duke’s hand in his.  The morning sun streamed indirectly in, bathing the room in a warm glow, and the only sound was the cries of the gulls in the harbor.  He has always liked the contemplative mood of a quiet morning, but now the stillness worried him.  He couldn’t tell if Duke had shifted into a healthy healing sleep, or was unconscious from the pain and shock of his wounds.  Gloria had left Dr. Carr’s number in case of emergency and he was sorely tempted to call, but he reminded himself that both women had done the best they could for Duke, and that unless anything changed rest was the best cure.

Rest, and the comfort of his pack.  Nathan couldn’t sing, and he wasn’t about to subject an injured man to the tuneless squalling that lullabies would become in his throat.  Instead, he spoke.  Slowly and stumbling, searching for words to convey what was in his heart.  “Duke, I…I wish I could make this right.  I can’t imagine how much pain you’re in right now, body and soul, and that…breaks my heart.  I hate to see you hurting.  I’d heal you if I could.  I’d fix Wade, bring your brother back, the way he was before everything went wrong.  It kills me that everything you’ve been though, you’re still getting hurt and I couldn’t stop it, I couldn’t save you from this.  You fought so hard to do the right thing, and it only got you hurt.  That’s the way it’s always been with you, hasn’t it?”  He felt tears stinging his eyes, but he didn’t want to let go of Duke’s hand to wipe them away.  “It was a terrible choice that no one should ever have to make, but you stopped the murders.  I can’t know what it cost you to make that call and then stay strong in spite of everything.  But I know it was the bravest, most selfless thing I’ve ever seen.  You saved lives, Duke.  Our lives, Audrey’s and mine.  You’re the best man I know.”

In his hands, Duke’s hand gave a weak squeeze.  Nathan’s gaze snapped up to Duke’s face to see that at some point he’d woken and was watching him.  Duke tried, and failed, to give him a smile.

Nathan shifted closer, stroking Duke’s hair, worried at how haggard he looked.  “Hey, take it easy, you’re pretty badly injured.  We got you patched up but you need to rest.  Do you want some water?”

Duke nodded a little and Nathan brought a glass to his lips, helping him take a few careful sips.  Even that small effort seemed to exhaust Duke, and he lay back down and closed his eyes.

“That’s right, get some more sleep.  You’ve only had a few hours,” Nathan murmured coaxingly.  “Audrey and I are here, we’re not going anywhere.  We’ll take care of you, just rest now.”

Duke sighed softly, his face going slack as sleep washed over him once more.

**

Gloria came by at noon, and Audrey woke despite Nathan’s best intentions to let her sleep.  They reluctantly woke Duke so they could change his bandages and IV.  Duke was quiet, still clearly exhausted, but he looked grateful when Nathan told him that Tracy over at the Gull had reassured him they’d be fine and hoped he felt better soon.

“You’re gonna be fine, kiddo,” Gloria pronounced reassuringly, patting his shoulder,  “Nasty stuff but nothing life-threatening, and all of it healing as well as could be expected.  And now I hate to bring it up, but you’ve got to tell the town something.  Secrets don’t happen in a town this size, no one knows exactly what happened but they know that Duke’s out of commission for at least a few days and that you two are here taking care of him.”

Duke shrugged his good shoulder.  “Tell them whatever.  I don’t care.”

“I gave it some thought on the way over.  Everyone thinks Hansen was the killer and that his trained mutt turned on him.  Why not say that after killing him it ran off and was living wild up at Jenny’s Point, and Duke got attacked when he went up there?  You can say he managed to fend it off and kill it, it’ll explain the injuries and give the town closure,” Gloria suggested.  “I can say I autopsied it, I can fake samples and photos for the supposed killer dog.”

“Would that be okay, Duke?” Audrey asked.  “We don’t have to use that story, we understand if you don’t want anyone thinking of Wade that way.”

Duke shrugged again.

Nathan gave Audrey a worried look.  “It’s not a bad plan.  With a fake autopsy, we won’t have to bring people in to see Wade or prevent them from trying to get DNA or anything.”

“I understand,” Duke said dully.  “Take some photos of him if you want, they’ll be harder to fake than getting hair and tissue samples of some random dog.”

“This story will make you look like a hero,” Nathan offered hesitantly.

That got a reaction.  “A hero?” Duke snarled, glaring fiercely.  “I killed my brother!  After failing to stop him from murdering – god, how many was it, eight or nine people?  And let’s not forget the part where you two were the only thing that kept me from joining his little murder party.”

Audrey stroked Duke’s hair.  “You know that none of that was your fault,” she told him, gently but firmly.  “You did everything you could.  You tried to help him, you tried to bring him back.  Even when he was hurting you, you tried so hard.  It’s not your fault he couldn’t come back from that.  And you didn’t give in to that offer, even when you paid a terrible price for it.”

“Sorry,” Nathan mumbled miserably.  “I just wanted to make things right.  Wanted people to see the real you for a change, not just your reputation.”

Duke slumped back against the bed in exhaustion, his anger passing as quickly as it had come.  “Before last night I’d have really appreciated that you were trying to put that right.  I still do, it’s just…I think if anyone called me a hero I’d throw up.”

Audrey rubbed his back.  “No one expects you to be okay, Duke.  What happened wasn’t your fault but it was still a terrible thing.  You loved your brother and your grief for him would be devastating even without the addition of guilt over his death and horror at what he’d done.  It’s natural to feel all of those things.  It’s all right to not be okay.  We’re here for you.  We love you.  We’re going to help you get through this.”

Duke closed his eyes, and wept for his brother.

**

Duke had eventually worn himself out with his grief, and had fallen back asleep while Audrey was carefully bathing his tear-swollen face with a warm washcloth.  Audrey and Nathan decided they were both still too tired to care about lunch, and since Duke had been pronounced well enough not to need constant monitoring, they went back to sleep on either side of him.

Duke woke late that afternoon, no longer needing to sleep but still worn out and hurting.  He watched Nathan and Audrey sleep, Audrey’s face mobile with dreaming emotion, Nathan oblivious to the world as always.  How they could still be here, still caring for and about him, was more than he could understand.  How they could think of him as a hero, brave and selfless, was utterly beyond him.  He couldn’t taste his brother’s blood in his mouth anymore but he couldn’t forget it, and it made him want to be sick.  Only the knowledge of how worried Nathan and Audrey would be if he started retching kept him from doing so.  He tried to focus on the good things, on the fact that no one else would be killed, on the fact that Audrey and Nathan were okay, on how he’d protected his pack and turned away from yet another harmful bond.  On how Wade was finally free of madness and bloodshed.  Duke had never much been one for religion, human or werewolf, but he wished there could be some truth in it.  In the idea that the moon had called Wade home, and he was running free in fields and woods without end, finally at peace.  But he couldn’t believe that, and was left with the knowledge that he had failed his brother.  For all he had tried, he hadn’t been able to call his brother back.

Audrey rolled over, and the movement jostled Duke enough to send renewed pain blazing along his nerves.  But he didn’t mind – it felt good to hurt.  It felt right, and the pain of his body was far preferable to the pain in his mind.  It was unsettling to be confined to bed, tied to an IV and weight down by a cast, but it wasn’t the first time he’d been unable to heal.  There wasn’t much that could hurt a werewolf and most of the things on that list had never harmed Duke, but other werewolves had been far too common a cause of injury to him.

He was just contemplating whether he could attempt to get up without waking them – unlikely – when his phone rang.  Audrey woke and sat up, blinking sleepily.  “Want me to get that, or do you want to?” She asked Duke, reaching for the bedside table where it lay.

“Go nuts,” Duke shrugged, patting Nathan’s shoulder as he stirred, grumbling sleepily as the disruption.

“Duke’s phone, Parker speaking.  Oh hi, Beattie.  Hang on, I’ll ask him.”  She muted the phone and turned to Duke.  “Beattie asked if you’re feeling well enough for visitors.”

Duke blinked.  He and the harbormaster got along well, but he hadn’t expected her to care enough for a sickbed visit.  “Sure, I guess.  Like to clean up first, though.”

Audrey nodded.  “In an hour sound okay?  Sure.  Okay, thanks.  We’ll be here.”  She hung up and ruffled Nathan’s hair.  “Come on, sleepyhead.  You help Duke go get cleaned up, I’ll put some fresh sheets on the bed and find something to eat, I expect you’re both about as ravenous as I am.”

“Yeah, okay,” Nathan yawned, sliding his arms under Duke’s back and knees for a princess carry.

The bath was a painful and tiring ordeal, but Duke felt much better once he was clean and dressed in fresh pajama pants.  He allowed Nathan to lay him back down on the bed, grateful for the clean feel of new sheets and the heavy soft weight of warm blankets above them.  His stomach was still unsettled but he was ravenously hungry, and he managed to keep down the soup Audrey fed him.

Beattie arrived not long after, with flowers and a card and the offer to ‘have some of my people – the competent ones – look after the Rouge for now, if you’re willing to let anyone touch your baby.’  Duke gratefully accepted, and as they were chatting Stan stopped by, off his shift and out of uniform, bearing freshly baked cookies ‘from the missus’.

“Gifted cookies by a cop, what’s the world coming to?” Audrey teased Duke gently.

Stan looked a little sheepish.  “Well you know, when you book a guy a dozen times, you kinda get to know each other.  No real harm in him, you know?  Worse things in the world than getting some booze for cheap.  Think that’s something a lot of us have realized, this past several months.”

“That’s certainly true,” Audrey sobered.

Duke forced a grin.  “What he means is, he appreciates the free soft drinks and lunches I gave him and his buddies while they were stationed at the Gull these last couple weeks.”

“Did you?  I didn’t hear about that,” Audrey smiled.

Duke shrugged a little.  “If a man’s gonna keep watch over me and mine, it’s the least I can do.”

“Speaking of lunches,” Beattie asked, “Is there anything you need?  Food, medical supplies, errands run?”

Before Duke could answer his phone rang again.  Vickie, Gloria’s assistant, was going to stop in and had just asked more or less the exact same question.

“I didn’t know you even knew Vickie,” Nathan said.

“I’ve done some favors for the captain of the boat she used to work on,” Duke explained.  He never would have imagined there were this many people in Haven who cared about his well-being.  It was overwhelming, but in a good way.

Vickie had a get-well card from Gloria, along with note addressed to Audrey and Nathan.  “Eleanor recommended a therapist in the know, figured you’d need one.  Claire Callahan, 207-555-1968, specializes in PTSD and other psych trauma incurred by woo-woo bullshit.”

Audrey had pocketed the note quietly, suspecting that Gloria was right.

A little while later Beattie had gone back to work and Stan had headed out.  Vickie was just leaving, and when Nathan saw her out he found Tracy coming up the dock heavily laden with takeout bags from the Gull.   He hurried to take them off her hands.

“Thanks,” she smiled.  “We didn’t know if Duke had anything in his kitchen, so we packed dinner for tonight and breakfast and lunch for tomorrow.  One of us will come by again tomorrow night with the meals, and each evening for as long as Duke needs it.”

“That’s really kind of you,” Nathan said, surprised.  “I knew the Gull’s employees were loyal but it’ll make Duke really happy that you’re thinking of him.”

“It’s the least we can do.  Duke hired me when no one else in Haven would give me a chance, you know?  After James got in that car crash and those people died, everyone was sure he was drunk and they blamed us for it, even my children.  Even after the blood tests came back clean, the hate didn’t stop.  I don’t know what I’d have done if he hadn’t given me a job.  Everyone at the Gull is like that.  Henry got kicked out by his parents the day he turned eighteen, and he was living on the street.  Duke found him digging in the dumpsters for something to eat, hired him on the spot, let him turn the upstairs storage into an apartment.  Conrad’s PTSD was so bad he couldn’t hold down a regular job, but Duke lets him set his own hours and take breaks whenever he needs them, and does everything he can to make sure nothing in the environment will trigger him.  That’s just how Duke is.  He gives people second chances.”

Nathan swallowed around a lump in his throat, feeling like the wind had been knocked out of him.  Of course Duke helped out the people no one else would help.  Of course he gave them second chances.  The second chances no one had ever given him.

Luckily by that time they were inside and he could use the excuse of dealing with the food to remain in the galley alone, getting his emotions back under control, while he sent Tracy in to see Duke.

When he brought the food in they were going over plans for the Gull for the rest of the week, and Nathan was encouraged to see Duke genuinely invested in the conversation, seeming more animated than he had been all day.  It made sense, when Nathan remembered how protective he’d been about his employees.  The Gull and its people mattered to Duke, and he wanted them to be okay even if he himself was hurting.

It was well into the evening by the time Tracy headed out.  As Nathan went to see her out and lock up, Audrey smiled at Duke and stroked his hair.  “Busy day, huh?  You’re a popular guy.”

“More so than I had any idea,” Duke admitted, leaning back against the pillows.  He was tired, but he felt much better.  Having company didn’t make right what had happened, of course, but knowing that there were so many people who cared about him had soothed his wounded soul more than he’d have thought possible.

**

A couple of afternoons later, after Duke had been unusually quiet, he awkwardly broke the silence with, “You know…about what you said during the fight with Wade.  You don’t have to be my pack, you realize that, right?  I’ve been without a pack more or less since I can remember and I apparently have managed to avoid hurting anyone so far.  I’ll understand if that’s just something you said to keep me from going with him.  Which, by the way, _thank you_ for that.”

“Do you think of us as your pack?” Audrey asked curiously.

Duke looked embarrassed, which was an emotion Nathan hadn’t been sure he could actually feel.  “Sorry.  Like I said, you don’t have to be.  I mean, now that the crisis is over, you have better things to do than coddle me.  I was fine before all this, I’d be fine again.  I don’t need anyone’s pity.”

Audrey went up behind him and gave him a hug, and Nathan remembered what Audrey had said about Duke craving contact, saw the way his eyes slid closed and his body relaxed.

Nathan thought about the safe room, and a pile of neatly folded clothes.  He thought about the people who had hurt Duke, his choice to die free rather than be chained to them and his willingness to walk back into the jaws of that trap if it would save lives.  About a decrepit old teddy bear, and the relative worth of a pile of ratty old blankets.  Duke getting to his feet again and again to protect them even at the cost of his brother’s life. Duke fighting so hard against a world that had handed him nothing but disadvantage, making an honest life for himself and giving people the kind of help he’d needed but never gotten.  The way things had been the last few weeks with them staying together, the warmth and laughter and comfort.  He thought about calling Duke back, and what that meant.  He thought about Duke asking them to stay.

He stood and walked over, wrapping his arms around both of them.  “We are your pack,” he said, quietly but firmly, and felt Duke shudder, heard his little broken sound that fell somewhere between relief and fear.

“Nate, don’t, don’t promise me that if you can’t hold to it, anything but that.  I can’t do that again, I can’t lose my pack and go back to being alone, it will kill me.  Or worse.”

Nathan simply tightened his arms around them, scowling at the pain and desperation in Duke’s voice.  “Not going anywhere.”

“We are your pack,” Audrey agreed, and there was steel in her voice.  She shifted around to Duke’s side, cupping his cheek and looking him in the eye.  “We have been your pack since the night we learned you were a wolf.  We’re not like the people who hurt you.  We’re not going to betray, abandon, mistreat, or hurt you.  Not now, not ever.  You’re never going to be alone again.  You’re never going to need that godforsaken safe room again.  You’re never going to feel drawn to an abusive relationship again.  You will never again be without a pack, without the love and support and care you need.   _Never_.”

Duke pulled both of them against his chest, burying his face against Nathan’s neck, and Nathan could feel tears running hot and wet over his skin.  He reached up and pulled out Duke’s hair tie, running his fingers through the dark strands and marveling at the softness as he listened to Audrey murmur gentle reassurances.

He knew, suddenly and surely, that this was how they were always meant to be.

**

“Hey, Audrey?” Duke asked that evening while Nathan was in the galley cleaning up.  “What happens now that the case is solved?  I know that none of what really happened will make it into any official report, but as far as anyone know, Hansen was the killer and he’s dead, and even his nonexistent attack dog is taken care of.  So that’s case closed and that means you…” he swallowed hard.  “Wouldn’t you have to leave?  Back to the FBI?”

Audrey put her book down and came over to sit with Duke, holding his hand.  “I’m not going anywhere,” she reassured him.  “I could never leave you and Nathan.”

“You’re not quitting, are you?  Audrey, don’t, not for me, I know how much your work matters to you.  You’d be bored to tears in Haven, you’d hate it here now that everything’s going to be quiet and dull again.”

“If I planned to lead a quiet and dull life, that might be a problem, but I’ve thought this through,” she smiled.

“Thought what through?” Nathan wanted to know, coming back in.

“What happens now,” Audrey explained.  “Duke was just asking whether I’d be heading back to the FBI now that the case is closed, which is something I could never do now that I have you two.”

Nathan looked relieved.  “Good to know.  So what’s your plan?”

“Remember when I asked Duke how supernatural crime is handled?”

Nathan nodded, looking intrigued.  “As I recall, the answer was ‘not very well’.”

Duke nodded, sitting up a little straighter.  “Yeah, because of the need for secrecy, supernaturals are scattered throughout human society hiding their true natures or live in small isolated communities.  Either way, they’re without any real law enforcement except what they can handle on their own.”

“Which often isn’t enough, because they don’t have anyone trained in investigative technique,” Audrey nodded.  “Sounds like me there’s a niche to fill.”

A slow grin dawned on Nathan’s face.  “Supernatural detectives?”

Duke looked worried.  “What am I going to be doing while you two run around and solve crimes?  That’s not something I can help with.”

“Nonsense, you helped us immeasurably this last month,” Audrey pointed out.  “Besides, your contacts in the supernatural world will be key for getting the word out.  You’ll be our supernatural expert and non-human liaison.  We can be based out of Haven and travel to our cases, or make the Rouge a mobile HQ if we don’t want to stay here.  Whatever works.”

“It’ll take money,” Nathan mused, pragmatic.  “I’ve never touched my inheritance or the life insurance payment, and I could sell the Chief’s house.  Wasn’t even living there, couldn’t bear to.  It’s paid off, so it’ll fetch a pretty penny and some other family can give it new memories.”

“I’ve got a lot saved up,” Audrey added.  “I was on assignment so often that I let the apartment I had and just stayed in hotels between jobs.  Aside from those brief gaps I basically had no living expenses, my hotels and meals and everything were expensed when I was out on assignment.  And I lived for my job, so it’s not like I had hobbies to blow it on.  My paychecks and the profit from letting the apartment went straight into a savings account.”

Duke coughed.  “I, uh…could bring a little something to the table.  Without getting into details, suffice it to say that when you grow up poor as fuckin’ dirt, you never really feel financially secure.  Once I got past the point of living hand-to-mouth, every last penny I could put away, I did.  It added up pretty impressively.”

“We have a plan,” Audrey grinned.  “So that leaves just one thing - what do we call ourselves?”

“Three Gulls Detective Agency,” Nathan suggested.

“You’re making a pun?” Audrey groaned.  “Really, Nathan?”

“I like it,” Duke said, a tiny smile making its way onto his face as Audrey ruffled Nathan’s hair with playful roughness.

It felt good to have something to look forward to.

**

“We’re here for you,” Audrey told Duke as he hesitated at the door of the hold.  “You’re not doing this alone.”

“Unless you want privacy,” Nathan added, but Duke shook his head mutely.  He went in and stood by the body, looking down at the wolf that had been his brother.

He was silent for a long time.

When he spoke, it was quiet, the words heavy.  “You know…our father had this idea in his head that he was too good for pack.  Claimed that wolves who needed pack, who leaned on each other, were weak and worthless.  Said a true wolf could stand on his own.  Brought us up to believe it too.  He wasn’t around much.  Family was too much like pack.  But fathering kids was ok, because he liked women and he liked the idea of leaving a legacy.  Having sons to take his place someday.”

He lapsed into silence again, reaching out to touch his brother’s shoulder but flinching as his fingers met cold fur and stiff flesh instead of living warmth.  “We both tried so hard.  We loved our father, wanted to be like him, wanted to please him and make him proud of us.  I never could do it, though.  Hated myself for it, bent over backwards trying to be what he wanted me to be, but never succeeded.  Wasn’t until I grew up and met others and saw how they lived that I realized pack supporting each other wasn’t a weakness, that it was a more real strength than all of his macho crap.  And I told myself, I still tell myself every damn day, that he was full of shit and didn’t know the first damn thing about being a wolf, but…”

When the words trailed off and Duke didn’t speak again, Nathan volunteered softly, “But it’s hard to shake.”  He understood what it was to disappoint a father.

Duke gave him a grateful look, nodding.

“Wade and I…we were close, once.  Before that asshole beat it out of us.  He took care of me, like pack should.  Made sure I had something to eat, stood up for me when bullies laughed, protected me when Mom was drunk and angry.  Made me laugh on the days it felt like there’d never be anything to smile at ever again.  That killer you saw, that isn’t who he was.”

“We believe you,” Audrey stepped up beside him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders, and he leaned on her.

“Of all the people I suspected, it was never him.  Things got bad between us before he left Haven, he’d become too much like our dad by then, but I never thought he’d go this far.  I never dreamed he’d try to control himself at the full moon without pack bonds, that…that’s impossible, insane.  It destroyed him.  The old man’s great success,” he said bitterly.  “The old bastard probably went the same way as Wade.  Lost at sea my ass, he probably went rogue and someone had to put him down.  The Crocker curse, madness and bloodshed.”

“You’re nothing like them,” Nathan said quietly, squeezing his shoulder.  “You spent your whole life trying not to be your father, and it worked.  He might have considered you a failure, but the only thing you failed at was being a terrible person.”

Duke leaned against them, taking comfort from the contact.  He looked at the wounds on his brother’s body, and his face hardened.

“Our father did this to Wade, I’d bet my last breath on it.  He took Wade’s need for pack, the same need he tried to make us feel like shit for having, and twisted it to make him into a murderer.  The same way Wade tried to do to me, the same way that son of a bitch taught him to!” his voice was rising, a snarl underlying the words, his teeth a little sharper than human.  “He’s the one who killed my brother.  He took away everything Wade was supposed to be.  And he should be glad he’s dead, because if I ever met him I’d tear out his throat while he was still saying hello.”

**

Once the case was officially closed, there was talk that a memorial should be held for the victims – even some people saying that Duke ought to be recognized for his role in ending things.  The mayor officially set a date for the memorial, and after Nathan asked Duke if he’d be okay with coming up on stage to be recognized, that was added to the agenda.  After the memorial speeches and moment of silence, Nathan took the microphone.

“And now there’s someone we’d like to honor in a thankfully more positive way.  Duke, can you please come up on stage.”  Duke came, still limping a little from his injuries, and stood by him.  He tried to give the crowd his best charming grin but it came off nervous – which made it more appealing, really.

“There are a lot of people in this town who never thought they’d see Duke Crocker receive the thanks of a grateful Haven.  There are a lot of people – myself included – who thought the worst of him.”  Nathan turned from the crowd and looked Duke in the eye.  “I’m glad to say that I couldn’t have been more wrong, and that I – and all of Haven – owe him an apology for it.”

Duke tried not to look utterly stunned, and failed.  Of course he knew Nathan had changed his mind about him, had even admitted he was wrong.  But Nathan had never put his apologies into words, and to do so in front of the entire town was a massive gesture.

Nathan smiled and rested a hand on Duke’s shoulder – a familiar gesture of support, but now also a show of solidarity.  “In spite of what we thought of him, in spite of his rough beginnings, Duke rose above that and became someone we should all be proud to have in Haven.  His courage, his sacrifice, finally brought to a close the nightmare that gripped Haven all these months.  It’s because of him that your children can play in the yard again, that the shops on Main Street can stay open after dark, that you all can sleep peacefully in your beds at night.  We owe him our thanks, our gratitude, and our respect.  And I hope the town of Haven never forgets that.”

And when Nathan shook his hand, Duke straightened up, his back upright and his head held high, proud of himself for the first time in a very, very long time.

**Author's Note:**

> Credit for the title of Gloria's memo goes to RoosterTeeth for season 1 of Red vs. Blue
> 
> Massive thanks go out to my sister for beta-reading and to my friends on the Haven Hangout for all their encouragement. I could not have done this without you guys!


End file.
